MADISON, WIS. (Purdue Sports) — The Purdue men's cross country team made history as the first Boilermaker team to win the NCAA Great Lakes Regional title.
The victory accompanied 79 total points and all five of Purdue's fastest runners securing top-24 finishes – the only team to accomplish the feat.
With the result, the men's team earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute on Nov. 23.
On the women's side, the Boilermakers secured eighth-place out of 31 teams with 280 points. Not only did both the men's and women's standings steadily improve as the races unfolded, but the women's team climbed three spots during the final 4,000-meters.
Jaret Carpenter led the men with a 5th-place finish behind a time of 30:15.3 for the third-fastest time ever by a Boilermaker in the regional. His performance was faster than his 2018 Great Lakes Regional-winning time by almost an entire minute (31:09.6).
Finishing just behind him was Brody Smith and Curt Eckstein, who finished 13th (30:38.2) and 14th (30:44.6), respectively.
During the race, Smith was as high as third at the 4,000-meter check-point. Meanwhile, by the 8,000-meter check, Smith was in fourth while Carpenter passed nine runners to take fifth, where he stayed for the remainder of the race.
Rounding out the top-five was Tyler Bowling and Bailey McIntire. Bowling tallied 21st-place with a time of 30:49.4, while McIntire took 24th-place after clocking in at 30:53.1.
The women's top finisher was junior Megan Slamkowski, who clocked in at 21:01.3 for 27th-place. The Boilermaker found her stride mid-way through the race and climbed 14 spots by the 4,000-meter check. Additionally, freshman Meagan Hathaway rose an impressive 26 spots in the final 4,000-meters to finish in 30th-place (21:03.8).
