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NEW ORLEANS – Following a win against a talented field at the Memphis Twilight Classic on Saturday night, the Eastern Kentucky University men’s cross country team jumped three spots to No. 6 in the USTFCCCA Southeast Region rankings. The women’s team advanced two spots to No. 13 in the region following a second place finish at the same meet.

The men’s team, which has won every race it has attended in 2010, was led by the stellar performance of freshman Soufiane Bouchikhi on Saturday. The Antwerp, Belgium native finished second out of 284 runners, losing only to Auburn’s Ben Cheruiyot by two seconds, with an 8K time of 23:17.99. Redshirt sophomore Victor Kemboi also delivered a strong performance, finishing third overall with a time of 23:53.12.

The Colonel men defeated a number of ranked teams at the meet, including Arkansas-Little Rock (No. 7 in the South Central), Auburn (No. 7 in the South), Stephen F. Austin (No. 8 in the South Central) and South Alabama (No. 9 in the South).

The men’s team is now ranked behind only Duke, NC State, Virginia, William and Mary and North Carolina in the Southeast Region and ranked ahead of such schools as Louisville (No. 7), Virginia Tech (No. 9) and Kentucky (No. 14).

With the new ranking, the Colonel men are the highest ranked team in the state of Kentucky.

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Women's Team Jumps Two Spots to No. 13 in the Southeast Region

The women’s team was led by senior Kat Pagano on Saturday, who finished seventh out of 256 competitors with a season-best 5K time of 17:43.25. Sophomore Pictoty Leitich, last year’s individual OVC champion, was not far behind Pagano as she placed ninth in a time of 17:49.79.

The Colonel women finished second only to Stephen F. Austin (No. 7 in the South Central) and defeated such ranked foes as UAB (No. 8 in the South) and Auburn (No. 11 in the South). They are now ranked ahead of South Carolina (No. 14) and Virginia Tech (No. 15) and just behind in-state rival Western Kentucky (No. 12).

The Southeast Region is one of the largest of the nine regions in the nation, consisting of all NCAA Division I schools from the states of Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The region also features all Atlantic Coast Conference schools.

The top four teams from each region advance to the NCAA National Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov. 22.

Both EKU squads are the only teams in the OVC to be regionally ranked.

The cross country Colonels have a chance to advance even further in the rankings this weekend as they will compete in the talent-laden Louisville Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 2.