For the first time in Eastern’s history, the women’s cross country team shared the same emotions as the men, capturing the Ohio Valley Conference title Saturday in Richmond, Ky.

The Panthers defeated 18-time conference champion and host Eastern Kentucky by a mere six points. But the celebration didn’t begin until long after the race was completed. Head coach John McInerney approached the team with a prediction of finishing third.

“I didn’t mean to tell them for sure, but I was convinced we finished third,” McInerney said. “I didn’t realize how spread out everyone was. But I would rather err on that side and come back with good news.”

And senior Beth Martin, who finished second overall, didn’t doubt McInerney.

“It was a pretty bad time,” Martin said. “I watched everyone come in and we all thought we had third. We were devastated.”

Eastern’s women left for a warm-down run with tears in their eyes, only to return as the final scores were announced.

“As we were coming back they announced Southeast Missouri in third and then Eastern Kentucky in second, and we all thought it was a mistake. We had no idea,” Martin said. “I think we cried for about a half hour.”

Eastern Kentucky and Southeast Missouri, who were predicted to battle for the crown, didn’t win the battle with the unexpected women of Eastern.

“I was trying to concentrate on our girls, but it was hard to keep track of a score because there were just pockets of kids running together,” McInerney said. “I knew we were in the hunt and I tried to encourage them to run all the way through the race. They just kept moving up and maintaining their position.”

Martin pulled ahead of the race with Morehead State’s Karen Lutes. Lutes finished first in 17:37.80 and earned the Female Athlete of the Year award while Martin took second in 18:06, earning First-Team All-OVC honors.

“To run a 17:37 on that course … what really helped Karen was that she had run on that course before and got a feel for those hills,” McInerney said. “She ran a great race.

Beth was the only girl to go after her and Lutes pulled away steadily in the last half.”

Stephanie Bone finished eighth overall as Eastern’s second runner, battling runners from SEMO, Murray State and Tennessee Tech. Bones time of 18:46 earned her second team honors.

Freshman Krissy Peters showed her strength on the course, finishing third for Eastern in 17th place while teammates Katie Springer (21st) and Lauren Rapacki (24th) rounded out Eastern’s scoring.

“Lauren was our fifth girl and she was able to hold off a SEMO runner and an Eastern Kentucky runner to the finish line,” McInerney said.

While the underdogs were able to prove themselves to the league, the team will now take this weekend off to prepare for the regional race Nov. 10 in Carbondale.

“We’ll see SEMO at regionals and we can prove to them once again that this was not a fluke and we can beat them any day,” Martin said. “It’ll be exciting to go to the line at regionals and know we have a conference championship.”