Walt Crawford Open Preview
 
CHARLESTON, Ill..— The Southeast Missouri men's and women's cross country teams continue its 2025 campaign in Charleston, Illinois competing in the EIU Walt Crawford Open on Friday, hosted by Eastern Illinois University.
 
The men's 8k fires off at 4 p.m. followed by the women's 6k at 4:45 p.m.
 
Last Time Out
 
This is the second meet of the season for the squads after SEMO hosted the Redhawk Invitational a week ago. The men's team finished second collecting 48 points. Ohio Valley Conference foe UT-Martin took the crown with 30 points. In the women's race the Redhawks finished in fourth with a mark of 105 points. Missouri State won team title with 29 points.
 
Fast Start
 
There were 14 Redhawks that set a personal best in the 5k race. The two largest personal best marks came from sophomore Trey Mygatt who ran the race in a time of 15:41.6 which beat his personal best by one minute and 39 seconds. On the women's side sophomore Mattea Pearsall ran a time of 18:50.2 which beat her past top mark by one minute and 23 seconds.
 
There were eight other men to set personal bests. Garrett Dumke, who finished third, set a 19 second personal best, Evan Fuller, who finished 10^th, set a 39 second personal best. Myles Thornburg beat his previous time by 14 seconds and Byron Sowerby set a PR by 42 seconds. Cole Reinders set a personal best by 11 seconds and Clayton Eftimk set a new mark by 46 seconds. The final two runners to set personal bests were Sam Rinehart (29 seconds) and Jacob Blassingame (five seconds).
 
On the women's side, Lauren Eftink, the Redhawks top finisher, set a 55 second personal best. Erika Mellor joined the personal best party beating her previous best mark by 29 seconds. OVC runner to watch Lexie Dockstader best her past mark by 57 seconds and Kayla Vogelsang set a new mark by 58 seconds.
 
"There are two important things that helped us set personal bests," said coach Ryan Lane. "Number one is that this is the oldest team I've had in a while. We will have 12 athletes graduating and so the experience of the runners while also advancing their training have helped. The second is that we are healthy, health and consistency usually leads to good things."
 
New Redhawks
 
There were four new runners to complete the race for SEMO. On the men's side graduate transfer Ian Schwierjohn finished in 26^th, sixth for SEMO, with a mark if 16:02.  Freshman Zach Thoman missed the meet due to an illness. On the women's squad freshman Daphne Bishop placed 19^th, second for SEMO, with a mark of 18:40. Transfer Julia Martinez Dura finished 32^nd with a time if 19:02 and freshman Claire Horstman placed 46^th in 19:35.
 
"Our job is to recruit and attract people who continue to move the needle forward," said coach Ryan Lane. "We have a really strong freshman class on the women's side along with the transfers who have had success and our job is to get them better than they were at their previous school. Ian had a great debut for us, he was our sixth finisher that day and it's great to see a new runner come in and put themselves in that position early."
 
EIU Walt Crawford Open
 
The meet will be an 8k race for the men and a 6k race for the women on EIU Tom Woodall Panther Trail. This course will also serve as the OVC Championships course which is the key reason for adding an event like this to the schedule. There will be seven schools competing. OVC foes Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, Morehead State and SIUE will be running along with Lake Land College. Parkland College will only be competing in the women's 6k.
 
"We were not planning on racing in the meet, because it was an off weekend for us, but we decided to go and preview the course for the conference meet along with getting our runners mentality back for those longer races," Lane said. "It is important for our runners to have this extra travel and get familiar with the course before the conference meet."
 
Looking Ahead
 
The Redhawks will hit the road again the following weekend, September 12^th, traveling to Normal, Illinois to compete in the Redbird Invite. This race will also be a 8k for the men and a 6k for the women.