Oct. 30, 2009

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Friday, October 30, 2009) The Redhawks Cross Country teams heads full-steam into Ohio Valley Conference Championships in hopes of repeating their success from last season’s Championships. This year the OVC Championships will be held at the Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee and will be hosted by Tennessee State University. The men’s 8K race will start at 9:00 a.m. followed by the women’s 5K at 10:00 a.m.

Both the men’s and women’s team will be looking to continue their success heading into OVC’s after last season’s 2nd place finish by the men and a 3rd place finish by the women.

The men’s team will be lead by junior Jason Lumpkin, a two-time OVC Runner of the Week selection. Lumpkin has had three top-five finishes this season with all those finishes being second places. Lumpkin currently has the OVC’s fifth best time in the 8K with a time of 25:01.18 at the Greater Louisville Classic. Lumpkin is the Redhawks top returning runner from last year’s OVC Championships. Last year he just missed out on receiving All-OVC accolades by seven seconds as he finished 15th overall.

Chris Loseman has the team’s second best time this year with 25:29.90 at the EIU Panther Open landing him a 4th place finish. Like Lumpkin, Loseman has three top-five finishes in four meets this season. His best finish was a third-place showing in the 8K at the UE Invitational.

Rounding out the projected line-up for the men’s team at the OVC’s are Tyler Mullen, Cody Martin, Brandon Funderburk, Joel Krause, Devon Dudding, Max Zisser and Max Wieser. Mullen has the third best time on the team with a time of 26:35.38 followed by Martin (26:39.33), Funderburk (26:55.81), Krause (27:04.82), Dudding (27:16.17), Zisser (27:42.43) and Wieser (29:07.12).

Funderburk garnered Second Team All-OVC honors two years ago as a freshman competing at the OVC Championships.

Last year’s OVC Freshman of the Year Nate Shipley and Dustin Davis, both Second Team All-OVC selections last year, have not run this season due to injury and will not compete at the OVC’s.

The women’s team heads into Saturday’s meet with five individual top-ten finishes this season. Leading the team with three of the top-ten finishes is senior Szandra Pal. Pal, former Redhawk’s basketball player, has shown to be a strong runner on the women’s side. Pal’s personal best was at the EIU Panther Open with a time of 18:53.98, giving her a 9th place finish. She leads the team with three top-ten finishes including a sixth place finish at the UE Invitational.

Monica Noble is the team’s top returning finisher from last year’s OVC Championships. Last year Noble garnered Second Team All-OVC honors after finishing ninth. This year she has the Redhawks top placing as she placed third overall at the UE Invitational with a season’s best time of 18:57.05. She has three top-15 finishes this season in four meets.

Linnea Woldtvedt also garnered Second Team All-OVC honors last year after finishing 14th with a time of 19:31.30 at the OVC Championships. This year she has two top-20 finishes and set a career best in the 5K with a time of 19:17.46 at the EIU Panther Open.

After joining the team at midseason last year, Liz Speicher just missed out at Freshman of the Year honors and an All-OVC selection as she placed 15th at the OVC Championships. This season she has two top-20 finishes including finishing tenth at the EIU Panther Open with a career-best time of 19:01.27, the third best 5K time for the team this season.

The rest of the Redhawks women’s line-up consists of veteran Kasey Owens who ran a personal best time of 19:14.35 at the EIU Panther Open and has two top-15 finishes. Lanie Haertling (21:25.15), Kelley Good (21:56.00) and the newcomer duo of Tiffany Mead (22:09.94) and Kaily Downey (23:03.99) will also compete for the woman’s team in Nashville.

Heading into the championships on Saturday, the men’s predicted front-runner is Eastern Kentucky and the Murray State on the women’s side.

Picked first in a preseason poll of OVC cross country coaches, Eastern Kentucky enters Saturday’s championship as the favorite to claim its 18th championship. The Colonels are the only OVC team ranked in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Regional polls. EKU is eighth in the Southeast region, a ranking they have held onto since a strong showing at the Pre-Nationals Meet in Terre Haute, Ind. two weeks ago. Senior Stanley Mugo (24:37.84) and junior Wesley Ruttoh (24:39.88) have the two fastest 8K times in the OVC this season. Mugo was second at the OVC Championship a year ago, 10 seconds behind his teammate Maina.

Picked fifth in the preseason poll Jacksonville State has had one of the strongest runners of the season, freshman David Nilsson. Nilsson has been named OVC Runner of the Week four times this season and has won five of the six races in which he has entered. His 8K time of 24:44.00 on Oct. 10 was the fourth fastest of the season in the Conference.

Having improved its finish at the OVC Championship over each the last four seasons (from 11th to 7th, to 6th, to 4th to 2nd) Murray State was tabbed first in the preseason poll of OVC head coaches. Last season the Racers were just five points from dethroning perennial power Eastern Kentucky in what was the closest OVC Championship finish since 2003 (that championship was determined by only two points). Junior Katelyn Jones was third at the OVC Championship a season ago and has been named OVC Runner off the Week three times this season. Senior Taylor Crawford, who was the 2009 OVC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year last May, placed seventh at the 2008 OVC Cross Country Championship.

Having won over three-fourths of all previous OVC Championships, Eastern Kentucky will also be looked at as one of the favorite teams on Saturday. Junior Katherine Pagano was EKU’s top finisher at the OVC Championship a season ago, placing fifth overall.

The event is being held in Nashville for the first time since 1997 and third time overall since 1991.

This will be the 48th OVC men’s championship, as the first one was held in 1962. Eastern Kentucky has won the most OVC Championships (17), including the last three in a row and four of the last five. EKU has had the OVC Runner of the Year in each of the last five years, including Jacob Korir’s four titles in a row (2004-07) and Joseph Maina’s title a year ago.

The women’s championship will be determined for the 31st time. Eastern Kentucky has won 23 of the previous 30 championships including three in a row and five of the last seven. Despite winning all those team championships, EKU has not had a Runner of the Year and individual champion since 2003. Runners from Samford (2004-07) and Tennessee Tech (2008) have laid claim to that honor over the last five years.

Rain is forecasted for the meet.

For all your OVC Cross Country Championship needs log onto the official championship homepage at www.ovcsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&&DB_OEM_ID=6200&ATCLID=3760955