Senior Jason Bialka is the lone cross country runner to extend his season another week at the NCAA championship race while the rest of the men’s and women’s teams ended their season at the Midwest Regional Meet Saturday.

Bialka finished fifth overall with a time of 30:45, just eight seconds behind the first place Kansas State runner, Shadrack Kimeli. Minnesota and Oklahoma State will advance its teams to the NCAA race as the first and second finishers respectively.

With those individuals taken out of the results, Bialka’s fourth place individual finish was good enough to send him to Greenville, S.C., Nov. 19.

“He was a little concerned that it was not his best day,” head coach John McInerney said. “He felt he should have kept the tempo going, but he looked real smooth. Our goal was getting to the big one and he took care of it.”

The men finished seventh overall while Nebraska, Iowa, Loyola, Illinois State and the University of Illinois came in ahead of Eastern. The field consisted of 24 full teams with 30 teams represented on the course.

“It was a pretty wide open field,” McInerney said.

“Minnesota just had an outstanding meet.

“Our group ran solid, especially the front three.”

Finishing behind Bialka was Josh Vance in 27th place with a time of 31:34, two places shy of earning all-district honors.

“The time was a really big (personal record) for me by two and a half seconds,” Vance said. “The only thing I really can’t be happy with is that I missed all-district.

Vance was followed by Kyle O’Brien in 31st place while Andy Derks (68th) and John Sipple (79th) completed Eastern’s top scorers.

“Our goal was to have five in the top 30, but three in the top 31 isn’t bad,” McInerney said. “We felt we had a nice early-on bunch. It was just a tough-tough battle.”

With the season over for the men, they will look to help Bialka train this week before the national competition.

“We don’t feel we underachieved. We ran a ‘B’ race instead of an ‘A’ race,” Vance said. “Now probably a lot of guys will help him train and then we’ll get a few weeks of downtime before indoor track starts.”

The women finished 16th, but more importantly ahead of Ohio Valley Conference for, Southeast Missouri, who finished 17th.

“We wanted to make sure we beat them again and show then we didn’t just win (conference) by luck,” redshirt freshman Stephanie Bone said. “We could have run stronger, but we’re just happy we beat SEMO.”

Oklahoma State won the 23-team race while Siri Alfheim won with a time of 20:31.

Senior Beth Martin ran in the last race of her collegiate career, finishing 29th overall. She missed the 25th place of all-district by just six seconds.

“It was frustrating for her, but she went out hard and stuck her nose up there,” McInerney said. “She struggled in the middle, but had a nice finish. It was just a real nice race and a good step up from last year.”

Bone finished second for the Panthers in 88th place with a time of 23:22. Senior Lauren Rapacki also ended her final season in 112th place, finishing just ahead of teammates Krissy Peters (115) and Nicole Milici (123).

“I’m just so lucky to have with with them and I’m happy I got to go to the line with them,” Bone said. “I ran with Lauren most of the way and it was great to help each other out.”

While the 16th-place finish didn’t reach the goal of a 10th place finish, the Ohio Valley Conference champions are happy with the ending of the season.

“We didn’t feel we had any breakdowns,” McInerney said. “The whole pack went out well and fought a real nice battle. They’re getting after it at the regional level.”

And the young team led by just two seniors will be ready for more next season.

“We did better, but we still have some work to do for the big meets,” Bone said. “We can still step it up.”