The Eastern Illinois men’s and women’s cross country teams head to the Louisville Classic Saturday, Oct. 1st the men’s 8K begins at 9:30 a.m. and the women’s 5K begins at 10:15 a.m.

It is one of the largest meets of the year with 35 teams for the men and 45 teams for the women teams, including a few OVC Schools, Eastern, SEMO, UT Martin Tennessee Tech, Tennessee State, and Morehead State.

Eastern is coming off a second-place finish as a team for the men’s side during the Redbird Invite. Senior Dustin Hatfield led the way with a 3rd place finish at 24:09 in his first race of the season. Andrew Pilat finished 6th with a time of 24:51.

Adam Swanson finished 10th with a time of 25:06. Richie Jacobo, and Josh Whittaker finished the top 5 for Eastern runners with a 17th and 23rd place finish at 25:35 and 25:55.

Those 5 are expected to lead the way again for Eastern Saturday as last year Dustin Hatfield broke the EIU record for the 8K at the Louisville classic last year with a time of 23:28. The men’s team is ranked 14th in the regional poll entering the meet.

The woman’s team is coming off a 5th place finish at the Redbird invite the top finisher for Eastern was Kate Bushue with a 20th place finish at 22:47 followed by Sarah Carr with a 24th place finish at 22:58.

The rest of the top 5 for Eastern included Mackenzie Aldrich, Sam Mabry, and Breana Sheldon coming in at 27th, 33rd, and 41st at times of 23:11, 23:27, and 23:58.

The meet will be a showcase on where Eastern is compared to other teams with a large meet like this and can give a preview of what the conference will be like.