COOKEVILLE, Tenn.—University of Southern Indiana junior Lauren Greiwe (West Harrison, Indiana) was named the Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year in a vote by the conference’s head coaches and in an announcement at the 2022 OVC Championship Awards Banquet Friday evening.
Greiwe becomes the first student-athlete in school history to earn an Athlete of the Year honor at the NCAA Division I level after putting together a strong regular-season that saw her post personal-best five-kilometer and six-kilometer times.
A two-time OVC Runner of the Week honoree in 2022, Greiwe clocked a personal-best 5k time of 17 minutes, 54.1 seconds at the North Alabama Showcase after debuting with a personal-best 5k time at the Appalachian State Covered Bridge Open two weeks earlier.
Greiwe was USI’s No. 2 finisher at the North Alabama Showcase as well as the Live in the Lou Classic. She was USI’s top finisher at the Covered Bridge Open as well as the Bradley “Pink” Classic, where she ran the 6k in a personal-best time of 21:11.9. Her time was less than a second off the winning pace that Jennifer Comastri ran to win the 2021 Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship in dominating fashion.
The Screaming Eagles will compete for an OVC title Saturday when they toe the line at the OVC Championship at the Putnam County Sports Complex in Cookeville, Tennessee. The women’s 6k is slated for 10 a.m., while the men’s 8k is scheduled for 11 a.m.
