The cross country team will be in Maryville, Tenn., this weekend participating in the 2008 NCAA South Region Championships. The men finished sixth and the women ninth in this past weekend’s SEC Championships, which were held in Starkville. The Bulldogs hoped to finish within the top half of their conference and are hoping for similar, if not better, results in this weekend’s tournament.
The event will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday when the women’s team starts off with a 6K run. The men will follow with a 10K race, beginning at 10:45 a.m.
Men’s coach Steve Dudley said he feels good about his team’s chances this weekend.
“I feel really good about our guys,” Dudley said. “We’ve got a real good team and we’re going to go out there and try and finish with the best results this school has seen.”
With the NCAA Championships coming up, the Bulldogs are hopeful that a few of their runners will perform well enough this weekend to advance.
“We’ve got a few guys who have a real chance of advancing,” Dudley said. “Jonathan Rono, Robert Scribner and Adam Lenz have performed well for us this year and we expect good things from them this weekend.”
Scribner has been the Bulldogs’ most consistent runner this season, finishing first for the team in four of his team’s five races. Jonathan Rono has finished amongst the team’s top three finishers in every meet thus far.
While the men’s team will rely on experience to carry them this weekend, the women’s team will be amongst the most un-experienced at the tournament. Coach Al Schmidt said he thinks his girls have performed well all year, despite some injuries, and feels they may have some success this weekend.
“This is a very young group,” Schmidt said. “We have five freshmen and three sophomores participating this weekend, but they’ve trained very hard and are a very talented group.”
Freshman Renee Masterson has been State’s top finisher in every event this year, including a season-best 6K time of 22:00.76 at the SEC Championships. Schmidt said he feels that both Masterson and sophomore Simone Domingue are among the best the Bulldogs have to offer for this weekend.
“Simone and Renee both have a chance of finishing in the top 25,” Schmidt said. “If they perform well, they are very capable of making all-NCAA Regional team, which is very impressive for a freshman and a sophomore.”
For fifth-year senior Scribner, advancing to nationals is a chance to validate his time here with the Bulldogs.
“Advancing to nationals would mean everything,” Scribner said. “I’ve never been in a position to make it there, but I feel as though all the hard work I’ve put in has finally materialized this year.”