Lumpkin named OVC Runner of the Week

Southeast senior Jason Lumpkin led the men's team to a 9th place finish last weekend at the Bradley Classic in Peoria, Ill. Lumpkin finished in 21th place in the 211 runner field with a time of 24:50. The time is the fastest 8K time recorded by a Redhawk this season, and was impressive enough to earn Lumpkin co-OVC Runner of the Week with an athlete from Eastern Kentucky University.

"It felt great to finally break the 25-minute mark," Lumpkin said. "I have run 25:01 twice now, so I was really happy to hit the 24s."

Following closely behind Lumpkin were senior Chris Loseman and junior Nate Shipley. Loseman finished in 42nd with a time of 25:14 and Shipley finished in 49th with a time of 25:23. Sophomore Alex Zisser, senior Dustin Davis, sophomore Tyler Mullen, senior Cody Martin, freshman Brent Collins and freshman Patrick Yates rounded out the men's team in 68th, 75th, 102nd, 108th, 125th and 158th places, respectively.

The Redhawk women's team finished the Bradley Classic with a 19th place finish.

They were led by senior Monica Noble, who finished the 5K course in 23:08 to earn a 69th place finish. The next Redhawk to cross the finish line was junior Liz Speicher who took 111th place with a time of 23:59. Senior Kasey Owens followed closely behind with a time of 24:16, which earned her a 126th place finish.

Sophomore Tiffany Mead, freshman Samantha Thierry and freshman Madalyn Stichnot rounded out the women's team for the Redhawks, finishing 153rd, 163rd and 182nd respectively.

The Redhawks do not have a race this weekend. The team's next competition will be the OVC Championship meet on Saturday, Oct. 30 in Clarksville, Tenn.

Both the men's and women's teams are looking to put forth a strong performance at the OVC meet; they have been working towards this competition all season.

"We are feeling pretty confident going into the meet," said Loseman. "Eastern Kentucky University is going to be really tough to beat, but this year we feel like we have a shot."

This race will be the last OVC Championship meet for seniors Davis, Lumpkin, Loseman, Martin, Noble and Owens.

"We still have the Regional race to go in a few weeks, so this is not quite the end of our cross country careers, but it sure would be nice for us seniors to finish our OVC careers with a conference title," said Loseman.