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Eastern Kentucky sophomore
Erick Rotich was named 2016 Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Male Athlete of the Year while sophomore teammate
Charlotte Imer was tabbed OVC Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year in a vote of league head coaches on the eve of the 2016 OVC Cross Country Championship. In addition, EKU's
Lilian Jeptoo Kiborus and Tennessee Tech's
Gilbert Boit were named 2016 OVC Freshmen of the Year. The awards were handed out at an awards banquet on Friday night.
Prior to the 2011 season the awards for the top honors in cross country were determined by placement at the OVC Championship but were changed to a vote in 2011. This year's OVC Championship will be held on Saturday, October 29 at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee. Following the race the awards for Athletes of the Championships, Coach of the Year and the All-OVC teams will be awarded.
Rotich, a repeat winner of the OVC Athlete of the Year Award, started the 2016 season by being named the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Runner of the Week on September 12 after winning the Bluegrass Invitational in Lexington. He was also the Colonels’ top finisher at the loaded Wisconsin Invitational two weeks ago, placing 78th in a field of 199 competitors. He was also 11th in the Blue Race at the Notre Dame Invitational at the end of September. The native of Eldoret, Kenya, who won the OVC Championship a season ago, currently owns the second-fastest 8K time in the OVC this season (23:57.5). It marks the 13th-straight year an EKU runner has been named OVC Male Cross Country Athlete of the Year. Rotich is the seventh different OVC male runner to win the award in back-to-back years (five of the other six have also been from EKU).
Imer has helped the Eastern Kentucky to a No. 4 regional ranking in the Southeast in earning a trio of OVC Runner of the Week awards this season (after earning a pair of weekly awards as freshman in 2015). Imer has been the Colonels top finisher at all four of its meets including winning the Eagle Opener, placing fourth at the Commodore Classic, grabbing third place honors at the Greater Louisville Classic and most recently placing 19th in a loaded field at the Pre-Nationals Invitational. The native of Melbourne, Australia currently owns the fastest 6K time (20:32.9) and 5K time (16:52.2) in the OVC this season. This marks the seventh time in the past eight years that Eastern Kentucky has produced the Female Athlete of the Year.
Boit has made an immediate impact for Tennessee Tech, leading the Golden Eagles in all five meets this season. He opened the year by establishing a new school record in the 6K in winning the Golden Eagle Invitational, a performance that earned him OVC Runner of the Week honors. A week later he won the Azalea City Classic and followed that by being named OVC Runner of the Week the following week when he was fourth in a field of 288 competitors at the Commodore Classic. At the Greater Louisville Classic, he established at new TTU record in the 8K, a mark that is the third-fastest in the OVC this season. In his last race he placed ninth at the Crimson Classic. Boit, a native of Eten, Kenya, holds the fastest 6K time (18:33.7) in the OVC this year. He is the first Tennessee Tech runner to be named Freshman of the Year since the award was first handed out in 2005.
Jeptoo Kiborus has been Eastern Kentucky's No. 2 runner all season, while notching the second-fastest 5K time (17:15.5) and the seventh-fastest 6K time (21:31.0) in the OVC in 2016. After opening the season with a third-place finish at the Eagle Opener, she finished 23rd at the Commodore Classic and then was 17th at the Greater Louisville Classic. The native of Nairobi, Kenya is the third EKU student-athlete to be named OVC Freshman of the Year and first since Julia van Velthoven in 2012.