The Notre Dame Invite was significant for the Eastern cross country teams even before the Panthers raced on Saturday in South Bend, Ind., as 17 of the top times in Eastern history were run at the race.

Many of the times date back to the late 1970s and early 1980s when the Panthers used to go to the meet every year, but head coach Geoff Masanet said this is only the second time they have run the event since 1985.

“We have a lot of guys whose top times of their lives came from Notre Dame,” Masanet said. “So there is a lot of Eastern tradition in this meet.”

With all that history of fast times the current Panthers were expecting to run quick races and maybe get some top times of their own.

The Panthers didn’t do as well as they had expected this weekend.

The men finished in 14th place in and the women in 21st of 23 total teams in the Gold Division.

North Central College won the men’s Gold Division race with 93 total points, and Michigan State won the women’s Gold Division with 76 total points.

Eastern senior Brad Butler said the team might have put more pressure on running fast instead of racing well.

Butler was the Panthers’ top finisher in 35th place in 25 minutes, 50 seconds.

“If you run a good, controlled race and you run it well, the times will follow,” Butler said. “Personally, my time was a lot slower than I was hoping for. The race went out quick like we expected with about a 4:50 mile, and I wanted to maintain a 5:00 flat the rest of the race, but at about three miles my legs just started to feel heavy.”

Sophomore Derek Ericson came in second for the Panthers and 56th overall in 26:11, followed by junior David Holm, whose time of 26:30 landed him in 81st place overall.

Junior Erin O’Grady was Eastern’s top finisher in the women’s race coming in 105th in 19:20. Freshman Brittany Arthur was the Panthers’ second best finisher and came in 122nd overall with a time of 19:38.

Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s Ayla Mitchell won the Gold Division women’s race with a time of 17:28, and Windsor University’s Dave Weston won the Gold Division men’s race with a time of 24:50.

Florida State swept the Blue Division with wins in both the men’s and women’s races.

Eastern returns to action at 11 a.m. on Oct. 18 at the Evansville Invitational in Evansville, Ind.

Brandy Provaznik can be reached at 581-7944 or at blprovaznik@eiu.edu.