Redhawks soar at home meet: Men dominate, women shine with star runner

The Southeast Missouri State cross country team hosted their only home meet of the season on Friday, Aug. 30 at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau. The men won the event while the women finished fourth behind Missouri State, Southern Illinois, and Murray State.

Here are three takeaways from the annual season opener at Osage:

Nova is for real

Nova Ojutkangas led the Redhawks by winning the women's 5K with a time of 17:50.103. She transferred to SEMO from the Rennes School of Business in Lannion, France, and immediately was projected to not only be the Redhawks' best female runner but also among the fastest in the Ohio Valley Conference. With the second fastest Redhawk (Erika Mellor) clocking in at 19:11.134 (16th place) she is certainly living up to the hype.

The men are living up to the hype

The men's squad won the meet with a score of 21, meaning they had four of the top five finishers and their fifth runner finished 10th.

Senior Noah Little took first place with a time of 15:10.965, over 15 seconds faster than his teammate, Nick Cimmarusti, who finished in second (15:26.660). Garrett Dumke, (3rd), Myles Thornburg (5th), and Justin Splitt (10th) rounded out the top five. Right behind them was Jackson alum Cade McCadams, who finished in 15th with a time of 16:05.178.

Columbia College, an NAIA school, came in second with 75 points, ahead of SEMO's rivals Southern Illinois (77) and Murray State (95).

SEMO head coach Ryan Lane said before the season that he believes the 2024 squad is the most talented team he's coached. These Redhawks are certainly living up to the hype.

"I had high expectations for the men and they exceeded it", Lane told Semoredhawks.com. "It's the best cross country race I've seen my guys run in 15 years, since 2010".

A family affair

Because Clayton and Lauren Eftink were four years apart in age, they were never teammates at Notre Dame Regional High School. They both left with their names on the school's record board but Lauren and Clayton were both freshmen ... at different schools.

However, the coronavirus pandemic led to the NCAA granting every athlete a free year of eligibility. Clayton gained that and also redshirted during the 2023 outdoor track season due to injuries to give him two years of eligibility in time for his sister's arrival.

So it finally happened. The Eftink siblings competed in a collegiate cross country race wearing the same jersey.

Clayton finished 38th of 72 with mere seconds under 17 minutes, while Lauren finished 26th (19:32.478) to round out the Redhawks' top five women scorers.