CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri men's cross country team takes first at the Redhawks Invite. The men took four of the top five finishes and five of the top ten finishes.

The Redhawk women finished in fourth notching four of the top 25 finishes.

Champions
Senior, Noah Little finished the 5k in first at a mark of 15:10.965 over 15 seconds faster than second place.

Nova Ojutkangas, transfer from France, took home the gold in the women's 5k, crossing the line at 17:50.103.

Men's 5k Results
Rounding out the top five scorers for the Redhawks are Nick Cimmarusti in second (15:26.660), 
Garrett Dumke in third (15:37.031), Myles Thornburg in fifth (15:50.916), and Justin Splitt in 10th (15:56.605). 

Cade McCadams finished in 15th crossing the finish line in 16:05.178. Freshman Evan Fuller and Freshman Cole Reinders finished back to back placing 17th and 18th. Fuller finished in 16:14.350 and Reinders (16:15.181).

Micah Grawer and Louis Primeau came in 20th and 23rd with times of 16:24.741 and 16:31.486. Jacob Blassingame crossed the finish line in 16:39.363 (26th) and Byron Sowerby ran a time of 16:42.041 (28). 

Sam Rinehart and Clayton Eftink were separated only by seconds. Rinehart finished in 16:55. 385 placed 37th and Eftink ran the race in 16:57.530 (38th). Tyler Anderson and Trey Mygatt rounded out the backend for the Redhawks with Anderson running a time of 17:10.878 placing 44th. Mygatt placed 49th with a time of 17:20.090.

"I had high expectations for the men and they exceeded it", said Head Coach Ryan Lane. "It's the best cross country race I've seen my guys run in 15 years, since 2010".

Women's 5k Results
Erika Mellor placed 16th (19:11.134), Madelyn Gray placed 23rd (19:27.741), Brooklyn Bender finished in 25th (19:30.882), and freshman Lauren Eftink crossed the line in 26th (19:32.478) to round out the top five women scorers.

Freshmen Cordelia Hoover and Mattea Pearsall finished their first ever collegiate race in 20:04.244 (39th) and 20:13.322 (42nd).

With times of 20:05.707 and 20:32.614, Kayla Vogelsang and Sarah Russom placed 40th and 45th.

Haley Smith and Alaynar Sparr finished the 5k with times of 20:37.573 (48th) and 20:55.913 (55th).

"We were missing two of the women and our team is very young. They did well and had a lot of positives", said Lane of his women's team. "As a group we ran really smart throughout the race because we moved up 30 points by the end. Once we get back to full strength we'll be even better".

Looking Ahead
The Redhawks head to Martin, Tenn. Sept. 14 to run in the UT Martin XC OVC Preview beginning at 9:00 a.m.