With so many successful sports teams at Eastern this fall, it’s hard to keep up with them all.

The football team is in the driver’s seat of the Ohio Valley Conference and is the only team without a loss in the conference.

The women’s soccer team is hosting the OVC tournament at Lakeside Field this week and has a first-round bye and the No. 2 seed in the tourney.

The volleyball team is currently second in the standings behind Tennessee State but will have a home-court advantage as the host team for the OVC

tournament.

The women’s rugby team has once again dominated the competition and is 7-1 on the season.

But this weekend one team overshadowed all those accomplishments-the Eastern cross-country team.

This weekend the men’s team claimed their fifth Ohio Valley Conference title in six years, and the women improved on a fourth place finish in 2004 and placed second.

The Panthers had eight runners chosen as first or second team All-OVC, freshman Jessica Blondell won OVC Women’s Freshman of the Year Award and Eastern head coach Geoff Masanet took home OVC Coach of the Year Award in his second season at helm for the Panthers.

Masanet has helped maintain a strong cross-country tradition at Eastern and barely skipped a beat after taking over for Tom McInerney, who coached the Panthers for 12 seasons and was a seven-time coach of the year in the OVC as he led the Panthers to seven conference titles.

Needless to say, Masanet had big shoes to fill, but he and his runners responded this season by reclaiming their presence in the conference.

Although the season isn’t quite over for the Panther runners, for now they can look back on their accomplishments and know they helped preserve a strong cross-country tradition at Eastern.

Dan Renick is a senior journalism major. If you want to know about the tradition he’s working to preserve at Eastern ask him at [email protected].