Complete Results

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 26 Eastern Kentucky University men's cross country team finished ninth in a loaded Blue Race at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday afternoon at Burke Golf Course.
 
The EKU women's team, meanwhile, placed seventh out of 25 teams in the Gold Race.
 
The Colonel men were defeated only by teams ranked ahead of them in the USTFCCCA national poll: No. 4 Colorado (71 points), No. 14 Ole Miss (107), No. 15 N.C. State (177), No. 21 Purdue (178), No. 9 Notre Dame (187), No. 19 Indiana (195), No. 16 Michigan (213) and No. 10 Wisconsin (244).
 
EKU finished with 254 points to take ninth place, defeating two teams ahead of them in the national rankings, No. 18 Wyoming (288) and No. 13 Colorado State (468), as well as two teams receiving votes in the poll: Florida State (266) and Gonzaga (310).
 
The Colonels were led by the impressive performance of freshman Ezekiel Rop. Rop made his collegiate debut in style, keeping up with some of the best runners in the country to finish ninth out of 167 competitors with a 5-mile time of 23:31.3
 
Fellow freshman Enock Kipchumba was second on the team and 44^th overall with a time of 24:12.0. He was followed by sophomore Remi Schyns (48^th / 24:13.6), freshman Nikodem Dworczak (71^st / 24:26.3) and senior Samuel Abascal (82^nd / 24:32.5).
 
EKU's top runner at the RedHawk Rumble two weeks ago – senior Fred Kanda – did not finish the race.
 
In all, four of EKU's top five finishers on the day were underclassmen (three freshmen and one sophomore).
 
The women's team delivered a strong showing in the Gold Race on Friday, finishing seventh out of 25 teams with 203 points.
 
The Colonels beat several regionally-ranked teams on the day, including UTEP, LSU and Stephen F. Austin. EKU also beat the only other OVC team in the race, Belmont (15^th / 360 points), by a large margin.
 
Eastern was led by another strong performance from freshman Viola Seromot, who placed eighth out of 193 runners with a 5K time of 17:22.1.
 
She was followed by fellow freshman Laura Taborda (19^th / 17:32.6), sophomore Beighley Ayers (48^th / 18:04.2), freshman Grace Kilroy (54^th / 18:06.8) and junior Alicia Minczuk (74^th / 18:18.6).
 
Like the men, the women's team was paced by four underclassmen in their top-five (three freshmen, one sophomore).
 
The cross country teams have next weekend off before returning to action the weekend of October 18-19 at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational and the Under Armour Pre-National Invitational.