Eagles set to race for OVC titles
EVANSVILLE, Ind.—University of Southern Indiana Men’s and Women’s Cross Country races for league crowns Friday when it competes at the Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Championships in Martin, Tennessee.
The Screaming Eagles are looking for their first conference team titles in both the men’s and women’s race after each team finished second at the 2023 OVC Championships.
USI has a long history of winning conference titles. The Eagles won a league-record 27 Great Lakes Valley Conference men’s championships and 14 women’s championships during their time at the Division II level.
Individually, USI’s men and women have enjoyed success on the grass in their previous two visits to the OVC Championships. Noah Hufnagel and Lauren Griewe became the first student-athletes in school history to win a conference title at the Division I level when they respectively finished first in the men’s and women’s races at the 2022 OVC Championships.
Both programs have enjoyed success this season, with USI’s women coming off their second first-place finish of the year at the Angel Mounds Invitational. Four different runners have been first to cross the finish line for the Eagles, including sophomore Ellie Hall, who led USI with a fourth-place showing at the Angel Mounds Invitational.
Senior Audrey Comastri paced USI with a fourth-place showing at the season-opening Sam Bell Invitational, while sophomore Zoe Seward led USI at the UT Martin OVC Preview and the Gans Creek Classic. Sophomore Ahmira Pickett was the first Eagle to cross the finish line at the Live in the Lou Classic.
Seward was the 2023 OVC Freshman of the Year and was first-team All-OVC with her fourth-place finish at last year’s league meet. Junior Micah Peals was second-team All-OVC with her 14th-place finish last year.
USI’s men have been led by senior Brady Terry, who recently won his third OVC Runner of the Week award following his second-place finish at the Angel Mounds Invitational. Outside the Eagles’ season-opener when he was the fourth Eagle to cross the finish line, Terry is undefeated against OVC competition this season.
He was first at the UT Martin OVC Preview last month and is among the favorites to win the OVC title Friday as he owns the OVC’s fastest eight-kilometer time of the season—24 minutes, 10.5 seconds at the Angel Mounds Invitational.
Sophomore Alex Nolan also should play a major role for USI’s men after earning OVC Freshman of the Year and second-team All-OVC laurels with his 10th-place finish at the conference meet a year ago. Terry also was second-team All-OVC following his 13th-place finish at the league meet last season.
The women are scheduled to toe the start line at 9 a.m. Friday, while the men’s 8K follows at 10 a.m. The races will be held on the University of Tennessee Martin campus.
