Eastern may have hosted the Ohio Valley Conference Track and Field Championships, but it was Austin-Peay who walked away with the title.

“Going in, I said they had a very strong team,” head coach John Craft said. “They did a good job.”

The Governors scored 127 points to edge out Tennessee State (109). Eastern Kentucky scored 86 points to place third, and Southeast Missouri State, the OVC defending champions, placed fourth with 75 points. Eastern finished fifth with 53 points.

“Fourth would have been better, of course,” Craft said. “But with the state of our team, I was really happy with our effort and the results.”

The women’s track team has been battling injuries throughout the entire season, and while the Panthers did almost field a full squad for the championships, not everyone was 100 percent.

For Eastern, the highlight of the meet was the distance medley relay. The team of Katie Springer, Melissa McMillan, Nicole Milici and Beth Martin shattered the OVC meet record by three full seconds with the time of 12:18.99.

“They did a fantastic job, especially since they were down over half a lap at one point,” Craft said. “Beth Martin did a good job (in the anchor leg) establishing pace, and ended up catching a Tennessee State runner who didn’t pace herself as well.”

There were other bright spots from the championships. Marissa Bushue placed third in the triple jump and third in the long jump with a personal best leap of 18-feet 8 3/4 inches. Jenny Cowan finished fourth in the long jump and seventh in the triple jump with a personal best performance of 17-7 1/2.

“Jenny has shown a lot of improvement throughout the season,” Craft said. “All of our scorers (in the championships) have gotten better as the season has gone on.”

Another Panther who continues to show improvement is Cynthia McGee. McGee placed second in the high jump at 5-7 3/4, a personal best. Despite jumping with a broken toe, McGee has set personal bests in each of the last two weeks.

In other field events, Tiffany Greenley placed seventh in the shot put.

The distance runners continued with their consistent performances. The 4X4 relay team of Amanda Galvin, McMillan, Heather Blanco and Cowan placed fifth. Lauren Rapacki placed eighth in the 5000, and Beth Martin took sixth in the 3000.

Katie Springer placed sixth in the mile with a personal best time of 5:13.03, and Shelli Troha placed eighth.

“Shelli was a pleasant surprise this week,” Craft said. “She’s been hurt for awhile, and last week was the first time she’s competed in a long time. I know she just wanted to score for the team, which she did.”

This marks the end of the indoor season, and now Craft is focusing on the upcoming outdoor season.

“We’re getting even more people back for outdoors, and we have a very young team in a very young conference,” Craft said. “The next three of four years should be very tough, very competitive.”