Coming off Friday’s Panther Open, the Eastern cross country team is feeling good about the rest of the 2010 season.

Team captain, sophomore Olivia Klaus, finished in fourth place at the Panther Open with a time of 18:15:93.

“I’m excited to see how much more everyone is going to improve,” Klaus said. “The more we improve the more our personal records are going to drop. I’m really excited to see how we can do compared to last year.”

Klaus said with only one senior on the team this year, the team is young, but she is still excited about the team’s potential.

However, Klaus said the team still has improvements to make, especially by staying together during a race.

“I think we can improve especially on our pack,” Klaus said. “Push one another to go faster. It makes it that much easier when you’re running with teammates.”

Klaus said the team needs to be composed, that they should know they should not go all out at the beginning of the race.

“That way when most teams are dying, we’ll have the confidence and extra energy to push ourselves forward,” Klaus said.

Brehm to return Friday

Red-shirt sophomore Nick Brehm will likely be back in action for Friday’s meet in Bloomington for the Illinois Intercollegiate.

Brehm suffered a stress fracture in his foot last season while he was still running for North Central College.

After having an MRI last week, Brehm said he will test out the foot this week in practice, but looks to compete in Friday’s Illinois Intercollegiate.

Around the OVC

Klaus was named Ohio Valley Conference Female Runner of the Week. Her teammate, Matt Feldhake was named the OVC Male Runner of the Week.

Last week, Austin Peay junior Enock Langat was named OVC Male Runner of the Week.

The Kenyan born runner finished 14th at the Belmont/Vanderbilt Cross Country Opener in Nashville, Tennessee, Friday.

OVC Female Runner of the Week, last week, was sophomore Ericka Stam of Jacksonville State.

Stam took third place with a time of 14:19 at the Jacksonville State/Strut’s Season Opener. Jacksonville State took third overall.

The Eastern men’s team was predicted to finish in second place in the OVC this season after a preseason coaches meeting.

Eastern Illinois received one first place vote, placing them behind Eastern Kentucky, who had nine first place votes.

The women’s team was again placed second also behind Eastern Kentucky.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7944

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[email protected]