Men's Results  I  Women's Results

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Eastern Kentucky University men's and women's cross country teams swept the Ohio Valley Conference Championships for the 13^th time in the last 14 years on Saturday morning at the SIUE Cross Country Course.
 
The EKU men – ranked as high as No. 25 in the country during the season – went 1-2-3-4-9 to claim a dominant victory with 19 points. The Colonels defeated second-place Belmont (61) by more than 40 points. It is the Colonels' 14^th consecutive and 28^th overall conference title.
 
Freshman Ezekiel Rop – who was named OVC Male Cross Country Runner of the Year on Friday night – won the men's individual title with an 8K time of 24:35.4. Junior Zak Kirk was not far behind in second place with a time of 24:39.5.
 
Senior Samuel Abascal (24:53.0) and OVC Freshman of the Year Enock Kipchumba (24:55.7) finished third and fourth, respectively.
 
Freshman Nikodem Dworczak was the Colonels' No. 5 man on the day, finishing ninth out 103 competitors with a time of 25:23.5.
 
Rop, Kirk, Abascal and Kipchumba earned first team All-OVC honors following the race, while Dworczak was named second team All-OVC.
 
Eastern Illinois finished third on the men's side with 74 points, followed by UT Martin (114), Morehead State (151), Murray State (191), SIUE (202), Southeast Missouri (202), Tennessee Tech (241), Austin Peay (286), Jacksonville State (344) and Tennessee State (377).
 
The EKU women – who entered the meet ranked No. 13 in the NCAA Southeast Region – scored 54 points to edge out second-place Eastern Illinois by only six points. It is the Colonels' 13^th conference title in the last 14 years, and their 33^rd overall.
 
OVC Freshman of the Year Viola Seromot ran away with the individual title, covering the 5K course in a time of 17:31.1 and defeating her nearest competitor by more than 20 seconds.
 
Redshirt freshman Laura Taborda was second on the team and eighth overall in a time of 18:11.8. Freshman Grace Kilroy was right behind her in ninth place (18:14.2).
 
Sophomore Beighley Ayers and freshman Anouk van Gils delivered key performances at No. 4 and 5 to secure the narrow victory. Both got inside the race's top-20, as Ayers was 17^th (18:37.9) and van Gils was 19^th (18:43.0).
Seromot earned first team All-OVC honors after the race, while Taborda and Kilroy were named second team All-OVC.
 
On the women's side, Belmont took third with 70 points, followed by Southeast Missouri (109), UT Martin (117), SIUE (162), Morehead State (188), Murray State (204), Tennessee Tech (231), Austin Peay (293), JSU (339) and TSU (377).
 
Second-year EKU head coach Cory Erdmann was named the OVC Men's Coach of the Year following the meet.
 
Both the men's and women's teams return to action at the NCAA Southeast Regional on Friday, November 15, in Charlottesville, Virginia.