Drury University’s Jaime Villa Zapatero has been named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Men’s Cross Country Runner of the Week for the second time this season. The sophomore’s great efforts at the hilly Roy Griak meet led his team to a first place finish out of 22 teams.

Zapatero captured second place out of 256 runners with an 8,000-meter time of 25:26. Although it is not his fastest time of the season, it was a completely different terrain and a much harder course.

He has been consistently running great races this season. Zapatero leads the conference in the 8,000-meter with a time of 25:10 at the Missouri Southern Stampede, and also in the 6,000-meter with a time of 18:39. He has led the Panthers to two first place victories at large invitational meets so far.

The Panthers will return to action on Saturday October 11 at the Harding Invitational where they will face the third ranked team in the national polls.

Other top performers in the GLVC this week included Drew Harris from Northern Kentucky.