Cross country finishes 20th, 21st in Louisville

Aldo Soto, Sports Editor

The Eastern men’s and women’s cross country teams finished 20th and 21st, respectively, at the Greater Louisville Cross Country Open Saturday in Louisville, Ky.

The Wisconsin men’s and women’s teams both won their respective races, as the No. 11 and No. 16 ranked Badgers paced both fields.

Charleston native Riley McInerney led the Eastern men with a time of 25:15.44 that put the sophomore 70th overall out of 250 competitors. Fellow sophomore Paxson Menard finished 73rd, with a time of 25:19.08.

Freshman Silos Too of Shorter University won the men’s 8K race, with a time of 23:45.77, while Wisconsin’s Malachy Schrobilgen finished in 23:48.36. The Badgers had five runners place in the top-20, which helped them pick up the first-place finish.

Ole Miss and Missouri rounded out the top-three teams, ending with 111 and 123 points, respectively. Eastern’s 546 points left it in 20th place out of the 28-team field that had 12 regionally-ranked teams and two nationally ranked teams. Eastern Kentucky entered with a No. 23 national ranking and finished in 12th place.

Red-shirt junior Joe Calio, red-shirt senior Ryan Ballard and red-shirt sophomore Derrick Johnson rounded out the rest of Eastern’s scored runners. Calio ended with a time of 25:41.61, good for 117th place, followed by Ballard in 164th place with a time of 26:12.95.

Johnson was 180th, with a time of 26:20.63.

Junior Victoria Quarton led the Eastern women, finishing the women’s 5k race in 87th place out of 300 runners, with a time of 18:15.77. The Wisconsin women had three of the top four finishers, led by sophomore Sarah Disanza, who won the race, ending with a time of 16:41.92.

West Virginia and Virginia Tech finished second and third, respectively, in the 32-team field. Both teams were each nationally ranked heading into the event at No. 23 and No. 28, respectively.

Freshman Maria Baldwin, and sophomores Julie James, Emily Brelsfoard and Rachel Garippo were the next four scored runners for the Panthers, finishing 102nd, 107th, 131st and 162nd.

Baldwin’s time was 18:22.68, followed by James’ 18:23.95. The final two sophomores had times of 18:33.90 and 18:51.35.

The Eastern women finished 21st as team, as the meet included 15 regionally ranked teams.

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams will next compete at the Bradley Classic, with the women’s race starting at 4:25 p.m. on Oct. 17 in Peoria. The men’s race starts at 5:05 p.m.

Aldo Soto (@Aldo_Soto21) can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.