COLUMBIA, Mo. -  The Eastern Kentucky University men's cross-country team made history on Saturday, finishing 9^th as a team at the NCAA National Championships in Columbia, Missouri.
 
The top-10 finish marks the highest team finish in program history for the men, with the next highest being a 15^th-place finish in 2013.
 
Entering the race as the No. 20-ranked team in the country, the Colonels outran the ranked likes of No. 7 Colorado, No. 8 BYU, No. 11 Wake Forest, No. 12 Washington State, No. 13 Notre Dame, and No. 14 Butler, among others, in the 32-team field.
 
EKU was led by two All-American honorees in Brian Kimutai and Taha Er Raouy, who finished in 21^st and 30^th, respectively, in times of 28:53.6 and 29:00.5.
 
Kimutai was the second-highest finishing freshman in the race, only trailing Kelvin Cheruiyot from Florida, who finished 14^th.
 
The duo became the first pair of Colonels to earn All-American honors in the same season since 2012 with Wade Meddles and Soufiane Bouchikhi.
 
Next across the line for the Colonels was sophomore Justine Kipkoech in 79^th in a time of 29:30.1.
 
Finishing the scoring for EKU were Miguel Baidal (89^th-29:31.6) and Mario Priego Montero (162^nd-30:03.9).
 
Also running were Keeton Thornsberry and Tomas Vega in 186^th and 224^th at 30:21.7 and 30:48.1.
 
In the women's race, Edna Chelulei became the first female Colonel to run at Nationals since 2017, finishing 63^rd out of 261 individual finishers in a time of 19:39.8, a personal best for the ASUN Freshman Runner of the year.