COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Eastern Washington cross country teams wrapped up their competition at the Gan Creek Classic in Columbia, Mo., with the women finishing 13th with 456 points and the men placing 22nd with 644 points.

Head coach Sam Read praised the women's squad, saying, "Huge race for our women's team. I doubt many people outside our program would predict that we would finish 13th, but we believed we belong! It's really cool to walk away from this meet beating multiple teams from major conferences and regionally ranked squads."

Cassidy Walchak-Sloan was the top finisher for the women, crossing the line in 66th place with a time of 21:19.3, closely followed by Jenni Bissell in 67th at 21:19.78. Other finishers included Jasmin Muneton in 85th, Nattie Ruzauskas in 134th, and Ellie Linnenburger in 145th. Read noted, "Cassidy, Jenni, and Jasmin ran as a great 1-2-3 punch, really finishing strong in the last 2k. The rest of our squad just continued to show our depth, and in any race they are in, a different woman can step up to fill the scoring spots!"

For the men, Evan Peters led the way, finishing 90th in 24:33.8, followed by Noah Hasselblad in 96th at 24:35.6. Jesus Herrejon, Austin Steed, and Charlie Ledwith finished in 152nd, 184th, and 185th, respectively. Read commented, "We dug ourselves into a hole in the first 1k and didn't get out like we needed to. You can see that in the results and how much everyone moved up the rest of the way. I'm proud of our guys for not panicking and climbing out of that hole, but in a really big field like this, that is a hard way to run and limited our ceiling of what was possible today."

Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Erin Tucker emphasized the importance of the meet, stating, "This is one of the best meets we will race in all year. I am glad we got to experience this in the middle of the season. We will learn from this and be better moving into championship season. We are building, loading, and needed a race like this! Go Eags!"

Up Next
Eastern will compete at the Whitman Invite on Saturday, Oct. 5, in Walla Walla, Wash., with the meet starting at 10 a.m.
ABOUT EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
Eastern Washington University Athletics sponsors 14 intercollegiate sports, six for men and eight for women, both as learning opportunities for its most athletically talented students and as an enhancement to student and community life. Eastern is affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and is a member of the Big Sky Conference, an association of 10 regional schools with comparable enrollments and academic goals.

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