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Eastern Kentucky junior
Charlotte Imer repeated as OVC Cross Country Female Athlete of the Year while Tennessee Tech sophomore
Gilbert Boit was named OVC Cross Country Male Athlete of the Year in a vote of league head coaches on the eve of the 2017 OVC Cross Country Championship. In addition, Tennessee Tech’s
Purity Sanga and Eastern Illinois’
Dustin Hatfield were named 2017 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 28 at the Panther Trail Course in Charleston, Illinois. Following the race, the awards for Athletes of the Championships, Coach of the Year and the All-OVC teams will be awarded.
A year ago, Boit was named OVC Freshman of the Year, and capped his season by becoming the first Tennessee Tech athlete to win the OVC Championship. This season he has earned a trio of OVC Runner of the Week awards, including two weeks ago when he smashed the TTU program record in the 8K (23:29.6) by 30 seconds at the Pre-Nationals Invitational; that time currently stands as the best 8K time in the OVC this season. The sophomore opened the season with a first-place finish at the Golden Eagle Invitational, two weeks later was first out of 200 runners at the Mountain Dew Invitational hosted by the University of Florida and on September 30 he won the Sam Bell Invitational hosted by the University of Indiana. Boit is the first TTU runner to be named Athlete of the Year and is looking to become the first back-to-back OVC Champion since EKU’s Soufiane Bouchikhi won four-straight titles from 2010-13.
Imer becomes the sixth athlete in OVC history to repeat as OVC Female Athlete of the Year, and the fifth from Eastern Kentucky to accomplish the feat (it was last done by Ann Eason who won three-straight awards from 2012-14). Imer has helped Eastern Kentucky to its first-ever national ranking, as the Colonels are currently No. 21 in the USTFCCCA poll. The junior has not finished lower than fourth in a race this season, including winning the Morehead State Invitational, taking second at each the Bluegrass Invitational and the Greater Louisville Classic and placing fourth (out of 288) at the Pre-Nationals meet. She currently owns the top 5K (16:36.07) and 6K (19:48.10) times in the OVC this year. This marks the eighth time in the past nine years that Eastern Kentucky has produced the Female Athlete of the Year.
Hatfield has been EIU’s top finisher at all four of its events this season including opening his collegiate career with a victory in the Walt Crawford Opener. He won that race, his first-ever 8K, with a time of 25:09.03, which earned him OVC Runner of the Week honors. Hatfield would go on to finish third at the Bradley Intercollegiate before netting a 50th place performance out of 326 runners at the Greater Louisville Classic. He capped his regular season by placing 20th in a field of 217 at the Bradley Pink Classic. Hatfield is the first Eastern Illinois runner to earn Male Freshman of the Year honors since the award was first bestowed in 2005.
Sanga owns the fifth-fastest 5K time in the OVC this season (17:38.1), a mark she set at the Commodore Classic in September where she placed sixth overall; that time ranks third in TTU history at the 5K distance. She followed that performance with a third place finish out of 285 competitors at the Mountain Dew Invitational hosted by the University of Florida. In her last race, Sanga placed 38th in a competitive field at the Pre-Nationals meet in Louisville. Sanga is the first Tennessee Tech runner to earn Female Freshman of the Year honors since the award was first bestowed in 2005.