Six years is a long hibernation period. Like a bear rising from a long winter nap, the Mississippi State men’s cross country team has returned to action for the first time since 1996 to the delight of MSU coaches and runners.
“The excitement level is much higher,” said senior runner Chris Boldt. “We’ve gone from having two or three distance runners to train with to 15-20.”
Boldt is one of three seniors on a team with 11 freshmen.
Head coach Steve Dudley said the program was reinstated to prepare for distance events in the spring track and field season.
“We weren’t scoring any points in the distance events at track and field meets,” Dudley said. “We decided to start cross country to give us a well rounded team.”
Dudley, who ran cross country at MSU from 1990-1995, said that even though Mississippi State track was nationally ranked as high as number two last year, it was all done with sprinting with no help coming from the distance events.
“We were overloaded in one area,” Dudley said. “We went into meets knowing that we weren’t going to score any points in four or five events.”
Boldt agreed and added, “It will be a huge help. (The runners) will get a good base in the fall and by the time spring comes around they’ll be ready to go.”
MSU was picked to finish eighth out of 11 teams in the SEC in preseason polls. According to Dudley, that is an amazing feat since it is the first year for the team and it is loaded with freshmen.
“We had a good recruiting class last year and got 11 freshmen. We ran all freshmen at the night meet in Memphis this past weekend and we finished second out of 14 teams. We should expect big things from this group in four years.
According to Boldt, having so many freshmen makes his job as a mentor very important.
“I just want to go out and be a leader for all the new guys,” Boldt said. “These freshmen guys have a lot of heart.”
Dudley thinks that men’s cross country is here to stay.
“I feel like we’ve made the choice to bring it back to help the track team,” Dudley said. “We’ve got a vision and we’re going to make it work. We’ve got to position ourselves to win a national championship.”
Dudley’s goals for the team include multiple ones.
“I want us to be the first team to upset Arkansas at the SEC Championships, win an NCAA regional and every four or five years win a national championship.”
While Dudley’s goals may seem lofty at first, he comes from a winning background. He won three state championships in high school and a Junior College championship while coaching at Bevill State.
“I’m very happy that Al Schmidt and Larry Templeton had confidence in me to take the program over and very happy about bringing the team back,” Dudley said.
The team will host the Bulldog Invitational Saturday at 9 a.m. at the South Farm.
“I’m very excited about bringing the team back (here),” Dudley said.
“When I ran here we took great pride in never losing a home meet.”
Dudley also gave credit to his former teammates and his coach John Charleton.
“(Charleton) coached me for a year and did a good job.” Dudley said.
“I just hope to do as good as he did. I hope all the runners that didn’t finish their careers here can see that the work we’re putting in now is just an extension of what they started.