Two roommates battled it out to win first place during the Homecoming 2.5K race Saturday.

Roommates Sean Wiggan and Michael Mendez raced each other and 268 other runners or walkers to win first place.

Wiggan, a senior business management major, said his roommate is usually a better long distance runner and he was happy to beat him this year.

At last year’s race, Wiggan finished in second place while Mendez, a graduate student studying clinical psychology, finished first and set the course record of 7 minutes and 10 seconds.

“I feel good,” Wiggan said. “My roommate, we run against each other all the time. He beat me here last year, so it’s a major victory for me. We love battling it out.”

Wiggan said he has been running since he was in the seventh grade. Wiggan is a member of the Eastern track team and said he has run in the 2.5K race every year since attending Eastern except for one year.

Wiggan said he will be at the race next year, if he attends graduate school at Eastern.

Mendez holds the record for the 2.5K race and said he was not even close to beating that record this year.

Mendez said he knew that it would be him or Wiggan who won first place. Mendez said he thinks he could have won, if he had more time to work out and train.

Mendez said he ran for four years in college and had more time to train while he was on the team.

Third place went to Eastern alumni Anton Jefferson. He said he felt good after the race.

“This has started a tradition,” Jefferson said. “I have run this for four years and I’m going to try and keep it up as long as I can.”

Jefferson said he started out with the plan to go as hard as he could and was happy that he won third place.

The first place for the women was Erin O’Grady, an Eastern track and field alumna.

“It was fun coming back and running with some of my teammates as an alumni,” O’Grady said.

O’Grady now coaches track at Schaumburg High School.

Nate Atkinson, a web developer for the Center for Academic Technology Support, said he was happy with the turnout.

Atkinson said he has run the race for a couple of years before he helped organize it.

“I almost did want to run it, but it was nice managing it,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson said the race helped raise about $800 for different organizations around campus and the community.

Mendez said he thought he was a good start to the day and is ready for the Homecoming events.

Wiggan agreed.

“It’s Homecoming weekend and I’m always excited about that,” Wiggan said. “The win will add to that.”

Samantha McDaniel can be reached at 581-2812 or slmcdaniel@eiu.edu.