Oct. 27, 2007

Men's Results
Women's Results

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- Senior Bulldog Lauren Blankenship captured her third conference title and was named Female Athlete of the Year for the third time Saturday at the Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Championships at Spain Park Course in Hoover, Ala. Blankenship ran a time of 17:26.34, the fastest collegiate time to ever be run on the Spain Park course, to earn All-OVC honors and led the women to a second place finish with 66 points while the Samford men came in sixth place.

Also finishing in the top ten for the women was freshman Bulldog Hillary Neal. Neal ran the 5K course in 18:41.20 and was named the OVC Female Freshman of the Year. Neal was named to the All-OVC First Team alongside Blankenship.

Coming in third for the Samford women was Lauren Pilcher, who ran a time of 19:16.96 to finish 13th overall and earn All-OVC Second Team honors. Britney Almaguer (19:28.54) was fourth for the Bulldogs followed by Ina Ables (19:56.70) at 29th place, Jillian Klassen (19:57.83) at 30th, Jessica Van Ausdall (20:39.01) at 49th, and Marissa Brokaw (20:47.20) at 51st.

"I was really excited about Lauren Blankenship," Samford head coach Glenn McWaters said. "She really went out there and blistered the course and it was really exciting for her.

"Our girls did very well," McWaters said. "Hillary Neal ran great and got freshman of the year. The last time we ran this course, Lauren was the first runner and then Eastern Kentucky had the next five. So we broke them up a little today. All of our girls ran really well today. We've had so much illness. They just cam back and did a really good job."

The Bulldog men were led by Drew Anderwald who earned All-OVC Second Team honors coming in 13th as he ran the 8K course in 25:57.05. Bo Brawner came in second for the Bulldog men, running a time of 26:34.19 to earn 20th place. Cameron Bean (26:34.19) took 24th place followed by Scott Cope (26:49.12) at 31st, Patrick Ollinger (27.04.48) at 38th, Michael Schwartz (27:20.03) at 42nd, Chas Keithan (27:23.30) at 43rd, and Blaise Carie (27:31.72) at 46th.

"We thought our guys were going to do better," McWaters said. Drew Anderwald ran a really strong race and finished 13th, making second team All-conference. Overall, we just didn't have a good day on the men's side, but we will bounce back."

Eastern Kentucky captured the team title for both the men and the women for the second year in a row. This marks the 22nd title for the Colonel women and the 16th title for the Colonel men. EKU's Jacob Korir took the men's individual time, running the course in 24:54.58, He is only the third runner in OVC men's history and the 13th in the nation to win four conference titles.

In the men's field, coming in after EKU was Jacksonville State followed by Morehead State, Southeast Missouri, Eastern Illinois and Samford. Austin Peay took seventh place followed by Tennessee Tech, Murray State, UT Martin and Tennessee State.

On the women's side, behind Eastern Kentucky and Samford was Southeast Missouri in third place. Murray State came in fourth followed by Eastern Illinois, Tennessee Tech, Jacksonville State, Austin Peay, Morehead State, UT Martin and Tennessee State.

For a full list of OVC award winners, go to www.ovcsports.com.