LSU brought more athletes than just football players to Starkville this weekend. The LSU cross country runners also made the trip to participate in the Mississippi State Invitational. In its lone home race of the season, the Mississippi State men and women’s cross country teams are seeking more success in this weekend’s meet.
In the first race of the season, both the men and women’s teams brought home the gold from the Sewanee Invitational. State beat the likes of Rhodes College, Emory University, Centre College and Tennessee Tech among other schools. Junior Renee Masterson won the women’s 6K with a time of 21:37.26 whereas junior Philip Johnson placed first in the 8K with a time of 26:59.96. These two, along with junior Haley Greenwell, who finished 5.27 seconds behind Masterson, must carry the teams this year if they expect to be a top competitor in the SEC.
Eighth-year men’s coach and second-year women’s coach Houston Franks said he is confident in their abilities to lead the team.
“Philip has been a good solid guy for us since he stepped on campus; he’s Mr. Reliable for us, and he manages himself really well,” Franks said. “Renee and Haley are both just really good; they’re good athletes.”
Along with these solid runners, the team is loaded with very talented freshmen, especially on the women’s side. The men’s team added five freshmen while the women added eight. Masterson said the freshmen are running far better than expected.
“The freshmen blow me away,” Masterson said. “They are such a talented group of individuals; we have never been this deep, and there are some natural-born leaders in there.”
Because it’s so early in the season, the team is still working on strength training but has begun to work on pace racing this week. A focus for the Dogs this season has been pack running, where the players run together until about halfway through the race; then they may go their separate ways.
This focus on pack racing and strength training has brought a lot of pain and work. However, Franks said he knows the price will be costly to be one of the top teams in the SEC.
“Distance running comes down to two things: who can be the fittest and who can endure the most pain,” Franks said. “We are trying to teach an attitude that when we show up, we want you to hate to have to race against us because we want to bring an intensity that nobody else can match to the meet.”
The team has an opportunity to bring that intensity when it  races tomorrow. It is important for both teams to win in the home meet, but the men especially have a chip on their shoulders.
Last year they won the team championship, but LSU won the individual championship. The men are hoping one of their own will capture the individual title this year.
In order for the team to stay on pace for a successful season, the desire to run must remain at the forefront of each runner’s mind throughout the year. Waking up morning after morning to go run may be the last thought on most people’s minds, but Greenwell said she loves the distance and mileage.
“Some think we are a little crazy running every morning, but our day is not complete without it,” Greenwell said. “If you sleep in, it feels like your whole world is out of whack; there’s something about getting up and running in the morning.”
The Mississippi State Invitational will take place at the horse park on Poorhouse Rd. The men will run at 10 a.m., and the women will follow at 11: a.m.
Since this is the only home meet of the season, not to mention a chance to beat LSU, Masterson said she is hoping to have a lot of supporters.
“A fan base is extremely important; last year at regionals in Birmingham we had the largest fan base ever, and the cowbells were amazing to hear,” Masterson said. “The more fans, the more adrenaline we get.”