Men's Results

Women's Results

CARBONDALE, Ill.—For the fourth consecutive meet, University of Evansville senior Ryan Witters (Evansville, Ind./Memorial) and sophomore Lauren Zeabart (Fort Branch, Ind./Gibson Southern) set the pace for the UE men’s and women’s cross country teams on Saturday at the Saluki Invitational in Carbondale, Illinois.

Witters led the UE men to a second-place finish by placing seventh out of 65 competitors in the 8-K race with a time of 26:06.0. Senior Max Cordier (Munich, Germany) ran second for UE, placing 12th overall in a time of 26:58.0, while sophomore Cody Stein (Evanston, Ind./Heritage Hills) ran third for UE and finished 13th overall with a time of 27:02.0. Sophomore Samuel Mires (Greenville, Ind. / Floyd Central) placed 18th while setting a new personal record with a time of 27:02. Senior Nicholas Tyree (Mitchell, Ind. / Mitchell) and freshman Andrew Barrett (Des Moines, Iowa / Theodore Roosevelt) rounded out UE’s scoring pack placing 20th and 27th respectively.

On the women’s side, Zeabart set the pace for the Purple Aces by finishing 3rd out of 60 competitors in the women’s 5-K with a time of 19:11.0 to help UE finish second overall as a team. Freshman Kelby Jenkins was not far behind, racing second for UE and 5th overall with a time of 19:17.0, while sophomore Shelby Cron (Newburgh, Ind. / Memorial) and junior Lauren Schaftlein (Milltown, Ind. / Crawford County) placed 8th and 9th respectively just seconds behind Jenkins.  Freshman Nicole Kreuzman (Greenwood, Ind. / Center Grove) rounded out UE’s scoring pack on the women’s side.

“I’m pretty happy about the way we finished today on both sides,” said UE head coach Don Walters. “I’ll take two second place finishes anytime. We had a good hard week of practice and we ran through those aches and pains today. The women have really closed the gap on the top Missouri Valley teams; I’m excited for the coming weeks to see how we improve before the conference championships.” 

The host Southern Illinois Salukis swept the overall team titles on both the men’s and women’s sides, with SIU’s Dan Dunbar winning the men’s individual title in a time of 25:29.0, while SIU’s Emily Toennies took home the women’s title in a time of 18:09.0.

Evansville will return to the course once again on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. central time, as the Purple Aces will travel to Louisville, Kentucky to take part in the Greater Louisville Classic.