Senior Riley McInerney had his best performance of the season, and junior Maria Baldwin topped the Eastern women’s rankings Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational.

McInerney placed fifth in the Gold Division of the race with a time of 24 minutes, 40.8 seconds in the men’s 5-mile trek.

Seniors Paxson Menard and Tyler Yunk made up the rest of Eastern’s top three finishers. Menard placed 16th with a time of 25:06.4, and Yunk came in 20th with a time of 25:11.5.

Rounding out Eastern’s scoring finishers were junior Chris Orlow and senior Greg Rogers. Orlow ran the course in 25:36.7, finishing 44th. Rogers placed 68th with a time of 25:53.0.

The men finished fifth out of 24 teams. The overall winner in the men’s race was Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis senior Robert Murphy with a time of 24:19.4.

Utah Valley won the meet with 114 points, followed by Duquesne’s 120 points, IUPUI (141 points), Youngstown State (142) and EIU with 153 points.

Ohio Valley Conference competitor Belmont finished 13th overall with 356 points. Murray State finished in the 19 spot, scoring 436 points.

The women also competed in the Gold Division and finished eighth out of 28 teams with 225 points.

Baldwin placed 18th in the five-kilometer race with a time of 17:40.1. Following Baldwin was seniors Ivy Handley, Ruth Garippo and Rachel Garippo and freshman Sadie Elliott.

Handley and Ruth Garippo finished in the top 40 with Handley coming in 30th and Ruth Garippo placing 38th. Rachel Garippo barely missed a top-50 placing with her 18:07.8 51st-place finish.

Elliot was last of the five scored runners for Eastern, coming in 110th with a time of 18:41.0.

This was the first time in Eastern history the three women finished the same race under 18 minutes. Handley ran in 17:50.1, and Ruth Garippo finished with a time of 17:56.1.

The women also posted the fourth, seventh and ninth fastest times in school history. They beat out OVC opponents Belmont and Murray State as well.

University of Texas at El Paso’s Lilian Koech finished first, running the course in 17:15.6, and Bradley University won the meet with 130 points.

Murray State finished one slot below Eastern, scoring 264 points. Belmont was awarded 375 points, putting them in 16th place.

Next up for Eastern is the Bradley “Pink” Classic in Peoria on Oct. 14 on the Newman Golf Course at 4:15 p.m.

Kaitlin Cordes can be reached at 518-2812 or krcordes@eiu.edu.