Rachel Essner
Contributing Writer
The Murray State cross country team traveled to Clarksville, Tennessee, for the OVC Championship meet on Monday, March 1.
The women’s team took fifth place overall, the highest the team has placed since 2015. The men placed ninth overall.
“I was really proud of the women for coming together and being able to achieve this,” said Assistant Coach Jordan Wallace. “The men took ninth, which is not something we want to be satisfied with, but I am happy with their individual performances.”
Junior Dani Wright led the women, finishing 14th and earning a spot in the All-OVC Second Team from her 20:12 time. Junior Emma Creviston was the second finisher for the Racers in 23rd place at 20:40, followed by sophomore Kristin Dent in 34th place with a time of 21:18. Sophomore Jessica Stein came in fourth for the Racers at 21:25 for 37th place while sophomore Amirr Evans rounded up the top five in 44th place at 21:39.
On the men’s team , sophomore Benjamin Hall and freshman Nathan Quinn finished within 0.2 seconds of each other, with Hall taking 48th at 30:24.7 and Quinn taking 49th at 30:24.9. Senior Caleb Kawasaki finished third for the Racers at 30:40 in 52nd place followed closely by junior Jordan Higgins in 53rd at 30:45. Rounding out the top five was junior Christian Slone at 31:10 in 54th place.
“This was a year that we knew we would have to focus on the place and it couldn’t be all about the time,” Wallace said. “The race conditions weren’t the best at every race we went to, so it was great that we had already had that practice from the other meets going into this meet.”
The women will head straight into their track and field season. The men, who do not have an official track and field team, will also compete in some of the upcoming meets.
