EVANSVILLE, Ind. — The Southeast Missouri cross country teams will have its final regular season tune-up as the squads will travel to Evansville for the Angel Mounds Invitational Friday morning. 

The meet will be co-hosted by OVC foe Southern Indiana and the University of Evansville. 

There will be a large contingent of teams including OVC competitors Morehead State, SIUE, UT Martin, Tennessee Tech along with the host USI. Other schools competing include Austin Peay, Bellarmine, Brescia, Central State, Cincinnati, Eastern Kentucky, Evansville, IU Indianapolis, Lipscomb, Murray State, Northern Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Transylvania, Vincennes, and Western Kentucky.

"One of the more exciting things about this race is the amount of conference teams so we will be able to see how we stack up against the field two weeks out from our conference meet," coach Ryan Lane said. 

The men's 8K will start at 9 a.m. ahead of the women's 6K at 9:50 a.m.

Hear from the coach

We have massive expectations for this race," said Lane. "We have turned a massive corner in our training and have looked really good preparing for the race. We took this longer break on purpose to allow for a significant training opportunity. It looks like we will have fantastic weather for the race as well."

Last Time Out

The teams competed at the Gans Creek Classic hosted by the University of Missouri. The men finished the open race third out of 24 totaling 122 points. The women finished second with a mark of 102 points. 

The highest finisher for the Redhawks was Nick Cimmarusti finishing seventh overall in a time of 24:55.5. Garrett Dumke followed behind in 31^st and Evan Fuller rounded out the top three finishers in 52^nd. Trey Mygatt finished fourth on the team and set another personal best, which he has done in each race this season, with a mark of 26:23.2. 

Leading the women's squad, for the first time this season was Julia Martinez Dura placing 13^th with a massive personal best reaching 22:31.1. Lauren Eftink followed in 22^nd and Lexie Dockstader finished next in 26^th with new personal best mark of 22:51.3. Kayla Vogelsang also set a new personal best with a 22:58.2 

Welcome Back

The 2024 OVC Female Athlete of the Year Nova Ojutkangas will be making her season debut Friday. She has been out rehabbing an injury and will compete. Last season she won four of the six meets she competed in. The meets she won included the Redhawk XC Invite, OVC Preview, Angel Mounds Invitational and the OVC Championships. She also advanced to the NCAA Division 1 Midwest Regional Championships where she finished in 17^th with a personal best mark of 20:18.2 to earn All-Region honors. 

"It will be Novas first race of the season, so the women get that boost," Lane said. "She doesn't need a lot of racing experience to be ready for conference, because she has a lot of experience otherwise. We wanted to make sure we were progressing her training, and she has had some terrific work outs and she's ready to go!"

About the Course

The flat and fast course is divided into 2k and 3k loops to accommodate 5k, 6k, 8k, and
10k courses. 15-20 feet of elevation change per loop.
 
Looking Ahead
The Redhawks will have a week off before they travel to the OVC Championships hosted this year by Eastern Illinois on October 31^st.