The Mississippi State cross country team will compete in the only home meet of the season Saturday at the Bulldog Invitational. Both the men’s and women’s sides will be looking to build off a second place finish two weeks ago in the Georgia Cross Country Invitational.
The Bulldogs decided to open the season with tougher competition than usual with the Georgia meet, which is something first-year head coach Houston Franks said helped give him an idea of where his team stands.
“Obviously, we’re never gonna be satisfied being beat by somebody,” Franks said. “We felt good about where we are. We closed the gap on [Georgia], and we feel good about that. Now we just have to keep getting better.”
With a men’s side that has only two seniors (Adam Lenz and Matthew Cameron), and a women’s side that has none, the Georgia meet was a good opportunity for the younger runners to obtain experience.
One of those runners is Nick Perkins, who was named SEC Male Freshman of the Week after finishing second place overall with a time of 24.40.97.
Redshirt sophomore Renee Masterson had the low time for the women’s side at 18:14.72, which was good for fifth place overall. However, for Masterson, who redshirted last year due to a knee injury, there is still room for improvement.
“Last year and previous years, we usually start off with this easy meet that we usually win, but I’m glad we got to start off with the Georgia meet,” Masterson said. “A lot more competition and we made exponential ground on Georgia’s girls, and just seeing that we’re being a threat to other SEC teams, and that gets our confidence up, but we’re not settling for second best. We’re continuing to stay hungry.”
The only other SEC team participating in Saturday’s Bulldog Invitational will be LSU, which has a more experienced men’s side than the Bulldogs, according to Franks. Rounding out the field will be Jackson State and Hinds Community College (men only).
Both the men’s and women’s sides have taken first place in the event each of the past three years, but Franks does not take this meet lightly.
“LSU is a perennial SEC tough opponent for us, and we’re gonna have to get in there and mix it up,” Franks said. “There’s no doubt about it, if we take this meet lightly we will get beat.”
Lenz, a fifth year senior, will look to improve upon his eighth-place finish in the Georgia meet when he returns to the familiar MSU cross country track, where his last run was 24:39.42.
“I was sick going into the first meet and didn’t feel like I raced that well,” Lenz said. “I’ve raced here once before, and depending on what the conditions are like this weekend, I’d like to hit a similar time as to what I hit a couple years ago.”
With a young group, Lenz was one of the guys Franks identified as a leader of the team. A Montpelier, Ind., native, Lenz has lettered three times in cross country and was an All-Region performer in 2008.
Franks expects Masterson to carry the women’s side, and had high praises for the Beech Grove, Ind., native. Masterson was MSU’s top finisher in all 2008 meets, and was chosen Freshman All-SEC that year, as well.
After a knee injury derailed her 2009 campaign, she is picking right back up where she left off in 2010.
“The problem is she’s had some injury issues, but when she’s out there she is as fierce a competitor and as mentally tough an athlete during competition as we have in our whole program,” Franks said. “She’s a beast.”
On Saturday the men will begin their 8k at 8 a.m., with the starting gun for the women’s 5k going off at 8:45. Following the collegiate races, there will be high school and junior high races for the men and women as well. The awards ceremony will take place at 11:45 a.m.