Southeast Missouri's women's cross country team made program history at the NCAA Midwest Regionals on Friday, November 11, with a 16th place team finish. Megan Parks and Sydney O'Brien are the first duo since 1998 to finish in the top 50 at Regionals.
SEMO finished in 16th place out of 33 total teams competing, missing a top-15 finish by a mere 20 points. The team made program history, finishing with the highest team average of 21:49.
"Our goal was to finish in the top 15 and while we didn't quite hit that mark, 16th is by far one of our best finishes as a program and is a huge jump forward," said head coach Ryan Lane. "Our region is, in my mind, the toughest in the country. If we were 96 miles south in the South Central Region, we would have placed sixth in that Regional. This has me very excited for the future of our program."
Senior Megan Parks led the way for the Redhawks finishing 54 spots higher than last year and giving her the second-highest finish in school history at a Regional. Junior Sydney O'Brien followed close behind taking 49th place. Kaitlyn Shea, a sophomore, landed in the top 100, placing 88th overall, and senior Angie Sumner closed out her career with a 124th-place finish. Sophomore Natalie Kopplin closed out the scoring for the women taking 150th place.
Parks and O'Brien finished the day with the top-two 6k times in program history, and Parks narrowly missed the best finish of all time at Southeast, a record held by Rebekah Lawson who finished 43rd.
Redhawks runners will continue competing during the Indoor Track & Field Season, which began last weekend at the EIU Early Bird Invitational, and will continue after the holiday. Southeast hosts two indoor meets at the Southeast Recreation Center – a dual meet versus SIU Edwardsville on Jan. 29, and the Redhawks Invitational on February 19.
