As if someone had hit the rewind button for the women’s team, Eastern head coach Geoff Masanet watched the women’s race unfold and the pack fall apart at the same spot the men’s had, not an hour earlier, in the Ohio Valley Conference Championships Saturday.

It was about a mile and a half into the race for the men and three-fourths of a mile for the women when Masanet said it seemed like the runners just spaced out and became complacent.

“They were in the top pack, and then they hit that point, and the top pack began to split up – and EIU didn’t catch on or keep up; they just stayed back in the second pack, until it was too late,” Masanet said.

Both the men and women placed fifth overall in the conference.

The men placed fifth last year as well, but this year was different than the last.

Last year, the Panthers only had one freshman in the top five.

This year, all five were freshman.

For this year, the competition across the board was stronger than last, said sophomore David Holm.

Eastern Kentucky won the men’s team race (8,000 meters) with 29 points, followed by Jacksonville State, Morehead State and Southeast Missouri.

EKU took first in the women’s race (5,000 meters), followed by Samford, Southeast Missouri and Murray State.

This year, instead of running for the Panthers and placing within the top five, senior Brad Butler was running around the course, encouraging his teammates.

“Butler giving up his senior season and red-shirting just showed us all how much heart he has and made me want to run the race for him,” said freshman Brad LaRocque.

Butler finished fifth in the OVC last year with a time of 25 minutes and 34 seconds, but decided to sit out this year to help build a stronger team for next year.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if Brad was in the race, we would have placed higher,” Masanet said. “If he had been in there, I know he would have helped pull those other guys up a bit and make them run a little more aggressively.”

Eastern’s top finisher, LaRocque, finished with a time of 26:03.71. He said when the pack started to fall apart, he was running closely to fellow freshman Ryan Hoklas, and they weren’t sure what to do.

“We were like, ‘Should we wait for our guys, or will they follow us if we take off and keep up with that top group?” LaRocque said. “And by the time we decided to go, it was too late.”

Masanet said that was the point where the race ended for Eastern. They tried to catch up and did manage to pass a few people, but were too far back to place much higher.

“It wasn’t that they were tired, or that the pace was too fast. It was just bad execution and decision-making in a critical point in the race,” Masanet said. “And you can’t fault them. I mean, our men’s team was led by five freshman who had pretty good races.”

Masanet said the women ran well but became complacent, which hurt them for the rest of the race.

Sophomore Erin O’Grady came in 15th place for the women and finished in 19:18.55. Freshman Caitlin Napoleoni came in next, in 18th, in 19:30.74.

Samford senior Lauren Blankenship won the conference meet in 17:26.34. It was the third conference title.

After the finishes at conference and because of some nagging injuries to the young squad, Masanet said he might decide to not take the teams to Regional, which will be at Bradley University in two weeks.

“Both teams had pretty good seasons, and I am trying to decide now if going to Regionals is worth it, or if we should just start training for track and (for) next year,” Masanet said.

The Panthers may or may not compete at the NCAA Midwest Regional at 11 a.m. Nov. 10 in Peoria.