• NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship Results (PDF)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Juniors
Wade Meddles and
Soufiane Bouchikhi both finished in the top-40 as the Eastern Kentucky University men’s cross country team placed 24th out of 31 teams at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday afternoon at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park.
EKU – which entered the meet ranked No. 17 in the country – improved two spots over last year’s 26th-place finish, as the Colonels defeated such teams as Georgetown, North Carolina State, Villanova, Notre Dame, Iona, Duke and Michigan State at the premiere event in college cross country.
Meddles and Bouchikhi earned All-American honors for their performances on Saturday. Meddles, who had not finished first on the team all season, delivered his best race of the fall, finishing 38th out of 245 runners and covering the 10K course in a time of 29:59.7. Bouchikhi, the Ohio Valley Conference and Southeast Region Runner of the Year, finished 40th with a time of 30:02.6 to pick up his first-career cross country All-American honors.
It is the first time EKU has ever produced multiple All-Americans in a cross country season.
Following Bouchikhi, sophomore
Ole Hesselbjerg finished third on the team and 138th overall with a time 31:02.08, while sophomore
Thijs Nijhuis (194th / 31:36.3) and freshman
Mads Taersboel (233rd / 32:35.2) rounded out the Colonels’ scoring five at the meet.
Freshman
Amos Kosgey (236th / 32:38.6) and junior
Yosi Goasdoue (237th / 32:39.9) also competed for EKU at the national championships.
Sophomore
Ben Toroitich, who shared OVC Runner of the Year honors with Bouchikhi this season, did not run on Saturday due to an injury.
Oklahoma State ran away with the team title at the meet, scoring only 72 points and defeating its nearest competitor, defending champion Wisconsin, by 63 points.
Texas Tech’s Kennedy Kithuaka won the individual title with an NCAA Championships record time of 28:31.3.