Complete Men's Results

Complete Women's Results

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Eastern Kentucky University men’s cross country team took seventh place while the women’s team took 10th place at the Southeast Regional Championships on Saturday morning at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park. Junior Wesley Ruttoh finished second in the men’s race and qualified for the NCAA Championships to be held Monday, Nov. 23, in Terre Haute, Ind.

Ruttoh is the first Colonel to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Jacob Korir and Joseph Maina both did so in 2007.

“Wesley ran a very aggressive race, hung tough at the end and beat a lot of very impressive runners,” head coach Rick Erdmann said. “It was his best race by far.”

Ruttoh, who was named All-Southeast Region following the race, completed the 10K course in a time of 30:04.46 and, in doing so, defeated this year’s BIG EAST champion (Louisville’s Corey Thorne) and ACC champion (Virginia’s Emil Heinieking). The only runner in the 231-runner, 35-team race to beat Ruttoh was Liberty’s Samuel Chelanga with a time of 29:31.25.

Seniors Chris Rengifo (31:27.95) and Stanley Mugo (31:34.09) were the Colonels’ second and third finishers, placing 35th and 40th, respectively.

Sophomore Chris Rice (32:06.77) took 54th place while senior Elkana Kurgat (32:46.00) rounded out the Colonels’ top-five finishers with an 88th place finish.

Senior Josephat Melly (32:54.40) finished in 98th place while sophomore Alex Dreyer (32:56.18) took 101st place.

The men’s team was ranked eighth in the region heading into Saturday’s championships. The only teams to beat them were William and Mary, North Carolina State, Louisville, Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina. The Colonels defeated schools such as Virginia Tech, Liberty and Kentucky.

The women’s team was unranked in the region heading into Saturday, but finished 10th out of 35 teams.

“For our women to be unranked and finish 10th, that’s a big achievement,” Erdmann said.

Freshman Picoty Leitich, the 2009 OVC champion, led the way for EKU, finishing 19th out of 237 runners and completing the 6K course in a time of 21:13.76. She was named to the All-Southeast Region team following the meet.

Juniors Katherine Pagano (21:56.80) and Sylvia Bundotich (22:05.25) were the Colonels’ second and third finishers, placing 49th and 57th, respectively.

Junior Lydia Kosgei (22:44.92) and sophomore Danielle Mason (23:00.12) rounded out EKU’s top-five by finishing 98th and 116th.

Junior Ashli Joseph (23:17.11) placed 144th and senior Maria Doerger (23:56.90) finished 184th.

The women’s team defeated several teams that were ranked ahead of them during the regular season, including Western Kentucky, Clemson, South Carolina and Virginia Tech.

Ruttoh will run on Monday, Nov. 23, at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind.