Evansville’s women came home in 22nd place out of the 33 teams, topping schools that included Kent State, Cincinnati, Ball State and Valparaiso. The finish was the best in program history, topping the 23rd place set in 2012.
Three females made their way onto the top 15 list in the record books. Leading the ladies was senior Kelby Jenkins, who ran the fourth best 6K time in school history, finishing the race with a time of 22:21 to come in 94th place out of 227 runners. Last year, Jenkins set the all-time UE 6K mark with a time of 21:11.
Nicole Krezuman also made her way into the records, posting a personal best 22:50 to take 120th while setting the No. 9 6K race in UE history. Rounding out the record-breaking effort was Laurel Wolfe, who posted a 23:02 to tie Becky Tirrell for the 12th best time in Aces history.
Junior Kirsten Perrey was the fourth UE runner to cross the stripe. In her first NCAA Regional race, she rounded the course in a time of 23:33 to take 168th while Alyssa Moran also ran her first 6K, posting a time of 23:51.
Maria Lynn (23:52) finished in 180th while Jacqueline Carlson was eight spots behind with a PR of 23:59.
For the men, it was Genet pacing the team once again with time of 32:24 to come in 77th out of 207 participants. He bested last years time of 32:33, but was short of his record-breaking effort from 2011 when he finished the 10K in 32:10.7. His efforts paced UE to a team finish of 28th out of 31 squads.
Next to cross the line was freshman Ross Frondorf, who took the course in a time of 34:42 in his first NCAA 10K effort. Jon Ashby posted a 35:16 and was followed by Kyle Wilson (37:19), Billy McNicholas (37:29) and James Paul, who ran a 38:30.
Friday’s race marks the end of a storied career for senior Kelby Jenkins. The Frankfort, Ind. product evolved into a force in the Missouri Valley Conference while setting the Evansville records in the 5K (17:27) and the 6K (21:11). She won a total of eight races, including the last four events held at the UE Cross Country Course. A 2-time All-Conference runner, Jenkins was named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar Athlete in each of the last two years while garnering four MVC Female Cross Country Athlete of the Week awards.
The University of Michigan was victorious in both the men’s and women’s races, downing Wisconsin and Notre Dame on the men’s side while the women’s team finished ahead of Butler and Michigan State. Top honors for the men went to John Mascari of Indiana State, who held off Matt McClintock of Purdue by two seconds. His winning time was 30:05. Juli Accurso of Ohio U. took the win by nine seconds as her time of an even 20:00 topped Erin Finn of Michigan.
