Southeast Missouri State women's cross country team places 2nd at OVC Championships

The Southeast Missouri State women's cross country team placed third at the Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Murray, Kentucky, while the men's team took seventh.

Megan Parks paced the Redhawks with a 12th-place finished in 18 minutes, 1.9 seconds in the 5K race to earn second-team all-conference.

UT Martin's Ann Asipan won the race with a time of 17:03.8.

Angela Sumner was 17th and Kaitlyn Shea, who was named the OVC's Freshman of the Year on Friday, was 20th. Sydney O'Brien was 23rd.

Shane Brown finished 28th in 26:18.2 to lead the men's team. Eastern Kentucky's Erick Rotich won the race in 24:31.4.

EKU won the men's team title with 21 points. Eastern Illinois was second with 67. The Colonels also won the women's title with 27 points, and EIU was second with 91.

Volleyball

The Southeast volleyball team swept SIU Edwardsville on Saturday and beat Eastern Illinois in five games on Friday to improve to 10-15 and 6-6 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

The Redhawks topped SIUE 25-22, 25-19 and 25-20 at Houck Field House.

Krissa Gearring led Southeast with 16 kills while Madalyn Werths and Nzingha Clarke had 10 and seven kills, respectively.

Clarke also had five blocks in the match.

Katarina Rotta and Keegan Fornoff had 17 assists apiece, and Jade Mortimer had 13 digs.

On Friday night, EIU claimed the first set 25-22 before the Redhawks won the next two 25-19, 25-17.

The fourth set was tied 11 times. Southeast evened it at 25 and took a 26-25 lead on back-to-back Clarke kills before the Panthers closed out the set with a 3-0 run to win it 28-26 and force the decisive fifth set.

The Redhawks never trailed in the final set. They led by as many as seven at 11-4 before EIU used a 9-2 run to even it at 13-all. A kill by Werths and an EIU attack error gave Southeast the 15-13 set win and the match.

Werths finished with 16 kills while Clarke and Less had 14 and 13, respectively. Clarke had five blocks.

Fornoff had 31 assists and Rotta had 26. Mortimer finished with 18 digs.

Southeast is on the road for games against Austin Peay on Friday and Murray State on Saturday.

Women's basketball

The Rekha Patterson era at Southeast begins when the Redhawks host Division II Oakland City today in an exhibition game.

Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. from the Show Me Center.

Fans that bring three non-perishable food items will receive free admission.

The Redhawks will also host Lindenwood-Belleville in an exhibition at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Soccer

The Redhawks soccer team begins the OVC tournament today at Jacksonville State.

Southeast, the sixth seed, and JSU (8-9-1, 5-4-1 OVC), the third seed, face off at 1 p.m. in Jacksonville, Alabama.

Southeast (8-5-6, 3-2-5 OVC) defeated the Gamecocks 1-0 on Oct. 18 before closing out the regular season with a 2-2 tie vs. Morehead State and scoreless ties with Tennessee Tech and UT Martin.

The winner of Sunday's contest advances to face No. 2 TTU on Friday in Murray, Kentucky.

Men's basketball

Former Southeast men's basketball player Jarekious Bradley was drafted by the Oklahoma City Blue, an Oklahoma City Thunder affiliate, in the fifth round of the NBA Development League draft on Saturday.

Bradley averaged 16.2 points and 5.5 rebounds for the Redhawks last year and was a second-team all-conference selection both seasons of his two-year career at Southeast.