The Mississippi State men’s cross country team finished second overall, and the women’s cross country team placed fourth overall Friday at the Crimson Classic in Tuscaloosa, Ala.The men’s team, which was coming off a first-place overall finish at their season-opening meet, continued its impressive start to the season by finishing with three runners in the top 10.
Junior Jonathan Rono finished fourth overall in the 8K race with a time of 24:48.63.
Freshman Ben Blankenship finished seventh with a time of 25:07.43 and senior Ashenafi Arega completed the race in 10th place out of the collegiate runners with a time of 25:35.11.
The men’s team was defeated only by host team Alabama. The Crimson Tide boasts the top-ranked team in the district standings. Men’s cross country head coach Steve Dudley was impressed with his team and its finish behind the top-ranked team.
“I felt really good about the team’s performance today,” he said. “We matched up as well as we could against Alabama.”
Senior runner Pad Judd battled heat exhaustion toward the end of the race. Despite the setback, Judd still reached the finish line.
Dudley said he was proud of Judd for fighting the heat and completing the race.
“Pad raced his heart out today,” he said. “He showed great heart by finishing the race. He put himself up front at the end of the race and showed a lot of heart. That’s what racing is all about.”
The women’s team, which came into the meet as the 10th-ranked team in the district, also completed the race with three runners in the top 10 and placed fourth behind the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University.
Senior Annie Falor placed fourth as the top individual runner for the Bulldogs in the 5K race with a time of 18:08.96. Freshman runner Simone Domingue placed seventh in the race with a time of 18:25.26, and fellow freshman Sarah Hammes finished eleventh overall and tenth out of all collegiate runners with a time of 18:35.42.
Women’s cross country coach Al Schmidt said he was pleased with the performance of his top three runners in Alabama.
“Our top three runners ran really well and at a very high caliber,” Schmidt said.
Though Schmidt was disappointed with the overall finish with his team in the 5K, he said he realizes there’s still time to rebound from Friday’s race.
“We had a chance to win, but we blew it,” he said. “But it’s still early in the season, and now we just have to keep working.