Men’s Cross Country
The Eastern Michigan University men’s cross country team started its season Friday in the Toledo Rocket Open, where the Eagles finished first with 28 points.
They were led by junior Terefe Ejigu, last season’s individual Mid-American Conference champion. He was first among the 34 runners with the time of 15:19.70.
Sophomore Grzegorz Kalinowski took third with 15:42.70.
Coach John Goodridge said Ejigu and Kalinowski were some runners to watch out for, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise since Goodridge said this was his most competitive team as far as individual performance.
He believes this competition was a good measuring stick to see where the team is and how it can improve.
“We faced a much-improved Toledo team, which gave us a good competitive experience for where we are in our training,” Goodridge said.
Toledo finished second with 33 points.
The Eagles will resume competition at 1 p.m. Sept. 16 at the 31st annual Spartan Invitational in East Lansing.
Women’s Cross Country
The Eastern Michigan University women’s cross country team started its season Friday with a second-place finish in the Toledo Rocket Open.
The Eagles had 40 points to Toledo’s 21 in a meet run in temperatures in the mid-90s.
Junior Morgan Churchwell finished first with a time of 18:02.40. A little behind her was junior Courtney Calka, who placed sixth in 18:49.30.
Even though the Eagles only had two runners finish in the top ten, they placed six in the top 20, with four Eagles occupying spots in the 10-15 range.
Senior Natalie Webb placed 11th (19:21.20), senior Beverly Elcock finished in 13th (19:35.10), junior Rachel Quaintance took 14th (19:37.40) and junior Amber Hutson took 15th (19:42.20).
The team will return to action Friday when it travels to Three Rivers, Mich., for the George Dales Invitational, where it finished in first place last season.
