CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Southeast Missouri Cross Country teams started their season hosting the Redhawk XC Invitational Friday night.
 
In the men's race there were eight teams competing and there were 10 in the women's race. Ohio Valley Foes Eastern Illinois, UT-Martin, SIUE and Lindenwood competed along with Murray State, Missouri Baptist and Kaskaskia CC. Missouri State and UHSP competed in the women's 5k.
 
The SEMO men finished in second collecting 48 points behind UT-Martin's 30 points.
 
"Our goal today was to pull along our depth, and we had some guys run significant personal bests which is a great sign," said coach Ryan Lane. "We also beat a team that finished ahead of us at conference, so we were excited about that."
 
Leading the way for the Redhawks was Garrett Dumke who finished third with a time of 15:18.57 which was a new personal best in the 5k. Nick Cimmarusti finished in eighth with a mark of 15:32.01.
 
Evan Fuller finished 10^th with a new personal best of 15:36.3 with Myles Thornburg right behind him in 11^th in 15:37.3. Wrapping up the scoring for SEMO was Trey Mygatt who also ran a personal best mark of 15:41.3
 
"Evan is a different animal, it was a good day for him but it will be much better," Lane said. "Trey had the largest personal best of the day and it was impressive to see."
 
Other finishers for the Redhawks included Ian Schwierjohn (25^th, 16:02.0), Cole Reinders (27^th, 16:04.6), Byron Sowerby (28^th, 16:06.46), Clayton Eftink (33^rd, 16:11.3), Sam Rinehart (38^th, 16:26.1) and Jacob Blassingame (42^nd, 16:31.7).
 
On the women's side SEMO totaled 105 points to finish in fourth. Missouri State took the title with 29 points.
 
"The women had a directive of pack running for 3k and then take off," said Lane. "They did exactly that and doing that we had a significantly better day then we have in the past. We are super excited to see the growth throughout the season."
 
Leading the way for the Redhawks was Lauren Eftink in 17^th place with a personal best of 18:37.6. Daphne Bishop ran in her first colligiate race finishing second on the squad with a time of 18:40.1. Erika Mellor finished in 21^st with a mark of 18:42.2. Lexie Dockstader finished in 23^rd with a time of 18:47.2 and Mattea Pearsall finished in 27^th in 18:50.16, both Dockstader and Pearsall both ran personal best times.

"We had some young women lead the way, Lauren was the 5^th fastest freshman last year and Daphne was a great recruit for us," said Lane. "A lot of the team had personal best runs and up and down a lot of positive things."
 
Other finishers for SEMO were Julia Martinez Dura (32^nd, 19:20.2), Kayla Vogelsang (34^th, 19:06.9), Layla Fliege (39^th, 19:13.5), Claire Horstman (46^th, 19:35.6) and Alayna Sparr (54^th, 19:55.0).
 
The Redhawks will return to the course when they travel to the Eastern Illinois Walt Crawford Open on September 5^th.