Both of Eastern Michigan’s Cross Country programs know a thing or two about being MAC Champions, but Saturday’s result was different. The new Ball State Cross Country Course posed a challenge for all runners on Saturday, making it difficult to achieve personal records.
The programs finished third place in the MAC Championships, which Ball State University hosted. The men’s team scored 78 points, and the women’s team scored 92 to finish behind the winner Toledo’s programs, which scored 32 points on the women’s side and 49 on the men’s side.
The women raced the 6k, and the men ran the 8k. The men and women had runners finish in the top 10 for Eastern Michigan. Paige Marchant (London, Ontario) and Sam Peterson (Charlevoix, Mich.) came in fourth and eighth place, respectively.
Marchant finished with a 6k time of 20:31.8, and Peterson finished with an 8k time of 24:30.1. The two have led the Eastern programs in every meet they’ve raced in the fall season heading into Regionals in Norton, Ohio.
There were also some note results for the Eagles in the two races. The women’s side saw four other athletes break 22 minutes. These included Marta Moreno (Wassenaar, Netherlands), Anita Zaro (Timișoara, Romania), Liv Hatch (Valparaiso, Indiana), and Lucy Jones (Haverhill, England), who had times of 21:10.1, 21:35.3, 21:37.8, and 21:51.7 over six kilometers.
In addition to Peterson, three other runners in the men's race broke 24 minutes, including Ronan Codyre (Auckland, New Zealand), Ty Dailey (Phoenix, Maryland), and Kian Wiles (Hull, England), who had times of 24:37.3, 24:44.4, and 24:56.8 and placed 11th, 15th, and 21st in the 6k distance.
For the 2024 fall season, Eastern Michigan had three student-athletes earn all-conference honors, highlighted by Marchant being on the first time for the second consecutive year. Peterson and Codyre made the second-team honors for the first time in their careers.
The third-place finishes mean that Eastern Michigan has extended its drought of not finishing first place at the MAC Championships to five and three years. The women most recently won the championship in 2019, and the men in 2021 when Eastern Michigan hosted the event.
Up Next
Eastern Michigan travels to Norton, Ohio, for the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Friday, Nov. 15. The Eagles will look to improve their 19th-place finish in last year’s event.
