West Central Reporter

Western Illinois University athletes Logan Lommel and Madison Trevena led their respective teams at the Ohio Valley Conference Cross Country Meet held at Graham Park in Martin, Tennessee. Lommel secured a third-place finish in the men's 8k race with a time of 24:22.6, earning First Team All-Conference honors. This marks him as the first Leatherneck to achieve such recognition since 2012.

The WIU men's team finished sixth overall, scoring 157 points. Southern Indiana claimed victory with 56 points. Other notable performances for Western Illinois included Logan Beckmier's 22nd place finish in 25:12.9 and Sean Hudspath's 24th place finish in 25:23.40.

Freshman Eason Comer contributed by finishing 54th with a time of 26:27.30, while Richard Brown closed out the team scoring at 76th overall with a time of 28:05.00. Matthew Thomas completed the team's efforts in 85th place.

In the women's competition, Madison Trevena led Western Illinois to match Southeast Missouri State for fifth place, each scoring 136 points due to head-to-head results between scoring runners. The women's team performance was their best since finishing fourth overall in a conference meet back in 2020.

Trevena finished the women's race in tenth place with a time of 22:00.36, earning her Second Team All-Conference honors—the first for any Leatherneck woman since Alycia Thurston's achievement in 2012.

Freshman Kinze Kirkland-Shea and Lydia Bennett helped secure key victories against SEMO runners, while Maleigha Huston finished two spots ahead of SEMO’s fourth-best runner—a crucial result for tiebreaker purposes.

Aylana Cezar made her season debut after battling injuries and contributed by finishing in the top ranks for Western Illinois women’s side along with Greta Sieren and Abby Fleming rounding out the roster.

Both teams will now take a two-week break before preparing for the NCAA Midwest Regional Meet hosted by Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.