Red Wolves - IU East

GRAYSON, Ky. - The Red Wolves raced to the top of the standings at the Late Knights Run on Oct. 30.

The Indiana University East women's cross country team placed first and the men's team finished second in the five-team event at Kentucky Christian University.

The first-place finish for the women's team represented the first invitational title for the IU East cross country program.

The second-place finish was the best team finish for IU East's men's cross country program.

"This is great," said Red Wolves coach Pam Mertz, who now has two trophies from the event to display on her office desk. "It's just the beginning of what we can win and what I expect us to win in the future.

"Hopefully this will give us confidence heading into the conference meet and also help us in recruiting and get people to see who we are and want to join us."

IU East's women finished with a team score of 35, 19 points better than fellow Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference program Midway College.

Red Wolves freshman Carlie Rider (Eaton, Ohio/Eaton High School) finished second in the 5K women's race with a time of 21:15.

Rider ran the fourth-fastest time in school history despite taking a wrong turn early in the race.

Junior Kelsey West (Cambridge City, Ind./Lincoln High School) was fourth in 23:00.

Redshirt junior Vanessa Legg (Lynn, Ind./Randolph Southern High School) was a career-best seventh in 24:02 (and also got Rider back on course after Rider's wrong turn).

IU East's men finished with a team score of 43, eight points behind Toccoa Falls College.

Red Wolves sophomore Justin Taylor (Waynesville, Ohio/Wilmington College) was third in the men's 8K race with a time of 29:02, the eighth-fastest time in program history.

Freshman Aaron Myers (Lynn, Ind./Randolph Southern High School) was fifth in a career-best 29:30.

"And the course definitely wasn't the fastest," said Mertz, who described the layout as a gradual incline with multiple climbs.

The top 20 runners in each race received t-shirts. Nine of IU East's 10 runners received t-shirts.

The meet concluded the regular season for the Red Wolves. IU East next runs at the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference meet on Nov. 6 at Asbury University.

Click here for men's results from the Late Knights Run

Click here for women's results from the Late Knights Run