October 29, 2011

Greene, Cline lead Golden Eagles at OVC Championships

John Greene and Rebecca Cline led their respective Tennessee Tech squads at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships Saturday at Eastern Kentucky’s Arlington Club.

Golden Eagles will run at NCAA South Regional on Nov. 12

RICHMOND, Ky. – John Greene and Rebecca Cline led their respective Tennessee Tech squads at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships Saturday at Eastern Kentucky's Arlington Club.

Greene, capping off a season in which he has set new career-bests in every meet and sliced his 8K time by nearly two minutes, completed the course in 26:44.85 to place 20^th out of 74 runners. As a team, the Golden Eagle men placed seventh out of 10 squads at the meet.

Cline led the Tech women for the third consecutive meet and placed 42^nd in a field of 75 runners with a 5K time of 20:02.39. As a team, the Golden Eagles placed ninth out of 10 teams.

Eastern Kentucky claimed the men's championship while Eastern Illinois won the women's title.

On the men's side, Matt Bishop was the second Tech finisher, posting a time of 27:24 while Mike Mahan was close behind at 27:43. Adam McLeod (27:48), Sterling Smith (28:26), Matt Pennycuff (29:12), Kolbe Andrzejewski (30:03) and Charlie Jordan (30:40) rounded out the Golden Eagle contingent. Smith and Pennycuff both set new personal records at the championships. Smith's time edged out his previous best of 28:32 set at the UE Invitational this season while Pennycuff broke his previous record of 29:15 set at the JSU Foothills Invitational by three seconds.

Eastern Kentucky scored just 18 points to claim the title, followed by second-place Eastern Illinois with 62 points and third-place Southeast Missouri State with 65 points. The rest of the field consisted of Morehead State (149), UT Martin (159), Jacksonville State (164), Tennessee Tech (175), Austin Peay (201), Tennessee State (289) and Murray State (316).

For the Tech women, Leah Bradley finished just behind Cline at 20:08, while Peri Winborne was the third Golden Eagle finisher at 20:19. Beth Miller (20:21), Kara Webb (20:26), Amelia McCoy (20:38), Meghan O'Donaghue (20:45) and Traci Jones (20:57) rounded out the field. O'Donaghue's time tied her personal-best of 20:45 set at the UE Invitational this season.

Eastern Illinois scored 41 points to win the women's title, followed by Eastern Kentucky in second place with 57 points and Southeast Missouri State with 88 points. Jacksonville State (103), Murray State (116), Morehead State (142), Austin Peay (161), UT Martin (206), Tennessee Tech (223) and Tennessee State (321) completed the field.

Eastern Kentucky's Lydia Kosgei won the women's title with a time of 17:43.69 while Eastern Kentucky's Soufiane Bouchikhi claimed the men's championship with a time of 24:54.83.

The Golden Eagles will compete in the NCAA South Regional on Nov. 12.