MARTIN, Tenn.—University of Southern Indiana Women's Cross Country placed four runners on the All-OVC teams Friday as the Screaming Eagles raced to their first-ever Ohio Valley Conference title Friday morning at the OVC Championships.
Senior
Audrey Comastri paced USI with a fourth-place finish and was named first-team All-OVC for the effort. Comastri crossed the finish line with a six-kilometer time of 21 minutes, 41.6 seconds, just over three seconds ahead of her teammate in sophomore
Ellie Hall, who was fifth.
Hall finished in 21:44.8, while fellow classmate
Zoe Seward was sixth with a time of 21:49.3. Both Hall and Seward joined Comastri in earning first-team All-OVC honors, while freshman
Hadessah Austin was second-team All-OVC after finishing eighth with a time of 21:56.2.
As a team, the Eagles finished with 41 points, 32 in front of second-place and defending champion Eastern Illinois University.
The Eagles placed five runners in the top 20 and six in the top 21 as senior
Cameron Hough finished 18th and junior
Micah Peals 21st. Sophomore
Sara Livingston rounded out the Eagles' scorers with a 33rd-place finish, while senior
Emma Thompson was 35th. Sophomore
Emily Rempe (45th) and senior
Katie Winkler (48th) rounded out USI's lineup in the 93-competitor field.
Head Coach
Mike Hillyard also was named OVC Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year. It marks his first two Coach of the Year honors at the Division I level and his 30th and 31st-times in his career—he was a 29-time Great Lakes Valley Conference Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year at the Division II level.
The win gives USI's women their 15th conference championship in program history and its first at the Division I level and the OVC. USI's last conference title came in 2021, when the Eagles won the GLVC championship in their final year at the Division II level.
USI's win Friday also marked the second-ever OVC team title during the two-plus years the Eagles have been members of the league. USI Women's Basketball won the OVC Regular-Season and Tournament titles last March.
The Eagles will take a slight hiatus before returning to action in January for the Indoor Track & Field season.
