Southeast falls short at OVC meet

Southeast Missouri State University's cross country teams failed to contend for Ohio Valley Conference titles as the women finished third and the men were fifth at Saturday's meet in Puryear, Tenn.

Eastern Kentucky's women defended their title and won the OVC meet for the 20th time in the past 22 years, scoring 40 points to edge Samford (42). Southeast had 92 points in the 11-team event.

On the men's side, Eastern Illinois rolled to its fourth straight crown with 29 points. Eastern Kentucky was second with 58 and Southeast had 111.

Southeast's men had two first-team all-OVC runners as junior Brian Whitehead and senior Chad Sierman placed fifth and sixth, respectively.

Also for the Indians, Gabe Lutes was 17th, Brad DeMattei 26th, Kirk Nesbit 58th and Mark McNamara 67th.

For Southeast's women, sophomore Brooke Woodruff and junior Kris Woolf were second-team all-OVC by finishing 11th and 13th, respectively.

Southeast senior Kaci Pilcher missed out on all-OVC honors -- the top 14 runners make it -- for the first time in her career by finishing 18th. Jenny Burke was 23rd, Jen Caywood 27th, Kim Krieger 32nd, Missy Moody 42nd and Taryn Phillips 49th.