Looking forward to two to three weeks of rest and recovery, the Panther cross country teams return to Eastern this weekend with one more season behind them. Although the runners put forth some season-best races, none advanced to the NCAA Championship race. Eastern had one runner, Jeff Jonaitis, finish in the top 25, earning him All-Regional honors.

Emotions about this season and the final race are mixed. For some, the race went spectacular, but for others it was a disappointing finish to a season of high hopes.

David Carlson, for example, finished third for the Panthers at 35th place. Jonaitis described Carlson’s race as the best first-time Regional performance he’d ever seen. But Jonaitis, who wanted to finish in the top 5, ended up with a 21st place finish. Jonaitis had been running with the top five crew for the first half of the race, but was attacked with a side stitch and had difficulties trying to catch back up to the people who passed by.

Eastern’s women could not complain about their performances. After a weekend of upsets at the Ohio Valley Conference race, the women bounced back and also ran some seasons best races.

Panther leader Stephanie Bone finished first for Eastern in 26th place, just missing All-Regional honors by one place. Angie Simone finished in 48th place, and Amanda Schutte finished in 95th.

Although the places were high and seem far apart, the women did run like they had hoped. The Regional race is a large field of very good competition and the places can sometimes be deceiving.

“You can finish in 50th place, and still have one heck of a run,” Eastern coach John McInerney said.

Out of a total of 30 teams represented, Eastern’s men finished 11th, just shy of their 10th place goal. The women finished right where McInerney hoped, 15th, and only 40 points behind a 12th place finish.

“I am pleased with both groups here,” McInerney said. “We competed very tough and attacked a challenging, hilly course.”

The University of Nebraska took the first place team finish for the women, and Oklahoma State University finished first for the men.

Jackson Johnson, who pulled off an impressive 67th place finish, and Jonaitis both ended their collegiate cross country careers this weekend. Johnson will still compete in the indoor and outdoor track seasons, but Jonaitis will never run in Eastern blue and white again.

Jonaitis’ feelings toward his final season were up and down.

“We had a few good races at our home course, but I feel like we kind of underachieved a little bit,” Jonaitis said. “We had a great team going in, but we only came out good.”

For the women, all things considered, the season finished out well. Going into the the season with only half of their women healthy, the Panthers are pleased with the team efforts put forth.

“I think we did what we could, for the way our team was,” Schutte said. “We didn’t always have our best runners, but we still sucked it up and ran the best we could.”

McInerney is excited for what’s on horizon for next years’ teams.

For the women, there are a lot of young runners and a lot of talented upperclassmen who are returning.

“We have a good group of girls and a lot to look forward to in the future,” Simone said. “This season, we didn’t do as well as we wanted but we did a lot of building for next year.”

The men will lose two men who will be hard to replace. McInerney said they will try to replace Jonaitis and Johnson as much as they can, but the task will be tough. Many young runners are coming back to the men’s team as well, and their future looks just as bright as the women’s.

The Panthers will get back into action after Thanksgiving break when some of the runners start to practice for the indoor track season.