CHARLESTON, Ill. – She has already locked down her legacy as the greatest distance runner in school history, and this weekend Tennessee Tech’s Stephanie Place was at it again.

The senior from Bristol, Tenn., set a school record in winning the 3,000-meter run at the Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships, and her finish helped Tech capture first place in the distance medley relay with another school record.

The Golden Eagle women finished eighth in the meet with 37 points. Host Eastern Illinois won the team crown with 146 points, followed by Southeast Missouri (108.5), Murray State (86), Tennessee State (77.5), Eastern Kentucky (71), Austin Peay (55), Jacksonville State (42) and Tech (37).

Place also claimed second in the 5,000-meter run, meaning she accounted for 28 of Tech’s 37 points. She missed her own school record by a mere two seconds.

On Friday, the distance medley relay team won the event in a school record time of 12:21, breaking the record of 12:28 set last year.

"Stephanie ran a spectacular last leg of 5:04 in the mile to come from fourth place to victory," said Golden Eagle coach Tony Cox. "Keri Light ran a solid 1200-meter first leg of 3:48 to position the team in fourth place. Freshman Emily Weinzetl held that position with a solid 400-meter leg and Tiffany Palmer ran a great 800-meter leg of 2:26 to get the baton to Stephanie in fourth place, about 12 seconds behind the leader, which was the home team of EIU."

Cox described the dramatic finish with Place tracking down and passing the leader for the win.

"The crowd started going crazy when they noticed Stephanie closing the gap on the home team girl," Cox said. "She came from about 12 seconds back to win by about four seconds.

The crowd was in shock at the end.

"I knew when she cut the lead from 10 seconds to nine seconds with six laps left that we were going to win," Cox said. "We were still in fourth place at that time. It was fun to watch her run down the leader for the victory.

"They are such great young ladies that I was incredibility happy to see them run that well and get the school record," Cox said. "They work very hard and deserved it."

Place returned to the track after just a 20-minute break to second in the 5,000- meter race in the time of 17:38.

"She was very tired from the DMR and held back a little in the beginning to rest," Cox said. "She got rolling in the final laps and was able to close the gap on the leader considerably toward the end."

Other highlights Friday:
* Keri Light placed seventh in the 800 to advance to the finals.
* Sophomore Ifeyinwa Eguzo ran personal records (PR) in the 60 meters and the 200 meters.
* Freshman Emily Weinzetl ran a PR in the 400 meters.
* Freshman Rebecca Forbes threw a PR in the weight throw.
* Ashley Evans ran 19:07 in the 5,000. That is her season best.
* Tiffany Palmer ran 19:11 in the 5,000, also a season best. She did that after running the DMR.

On Saturday, Place put her second school record into the books, winning the 3,000-meter run in 10:04.39. Light was 13th in 10:53.10. Light also earned points with a fifth place finish in the mile run with a time of 5:08.48.

Additional Tech highlights Saturday include:
* Evans and Palmer both ran PR times in the 5,000-meter run.
*Amanda Simmons posted a PR in the mile.
* Freshman Leayn Carter had a PR effort in the triple jump.