Stillwater, Okla. -  Nine runners will represent Southeast Missouri at the NCAA Midwest Cross Country Regional Friday morning. 

Representing the men's squad is Nick Cimmarusti, Garrett Dumke, Myles Thornburg, Jacob Blassingame and Clayton Eftink

The women's team will be represented by Nova Ojutkangas, Lauren Eftink, Kayla Vogelsang and Daphne Bishop.

The meet will be hosted by Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The races have been moved up with the women's 6k starting at 9 a.m. and the men's 10k will follow at 10 a.m.

OVC Success

The last race for each full team was at the OVC Championships hosted by Eastern Illinois on October 31. The men's team had their highest finish in 13 years placing third. The team was led by Nick Cimmarusti who finished seventh for first team All-OVC honors. Garrett Dumke finished right behind Nick in eighth place to earn second team All-OVC honors. 

The women's team finished second behind Tennessee Tech. Nova Ojutkangas won the race individually with a time of 20:57.1 to earn both first team All-OVC and Runner of the Championships.

The women's team had five runners reach a new personal best mark including Erika Mellor who set a 30 second personal best mark to finish fifth on the team. 

Hear from the coach

"This year we decided to bring a smaller group of longer distance pedigree, said coach Ryan Lane." "We are competing in one of the deeper regions in the country which creates a really strong field and the athletes that did well two weeks ago will get a crack to finish off their season strong."

"I believe training [for regionals] is more difficult because you seem to have an emotional letdown after pushing hard all season for the OVC Championships," Lane said. "It is definitely harder for the younger runners compared to the older runners who have competed at the regional meet before, but we are taking everyone who was running well and training hard and the group will be prepared." 

"Nova is in a different situation this year compared to last season," said Lane. "The biggest positive is that she now knows the level of competition at the regional meet, despite being hurt most of the season. She is in better shape every week and I feel confident that she will do very well on Friday."

2024 Regionals 

Last season the Redhawks sent 14 runners to the regional meet. Nova Ojutkangas, Kayla Vogelsang, Lauren Eftink, Clayton Eftink and Jacob Blassingame all competed last season and return this year as well.

Ojutkangas led the team last season earning All-Region honors finishing 17^th overall while also setting a SEMO 6k record of 20:18.17. 

About the Course

The course will be a 6k race for the women, which is its normal race distance, however for the men's team it will run a 10k race for the first time this season. 
 
Looking Ahead

The final race on the calendar for all NCAA runners is the NCAA Championships for the athletes and teams that advance from the eight regional sites.