The men’s and women’s cross country teams are both in good position to go deep into next weekend’s SEC Championships.
After both teams placed third in last weekend’s Crimson Classic, MSU seems confident going into the big race.
Junior John Valentine said last year’s undesired finish spurred the team to run better this year.
“Our success this season goes all the way back to the end of last year,” Valentine said. “We were pretty disappointed, and we knew we could have done better.”
Last season, the men’s team ended up with a dismal 11th place finish in the SEC Championships, and this time, the team look to make a complete turnaround.
Senior Phillip Johnson said the team’s health and depth have a lot to do with the recent success.
“We had some great talent coming in. The freshmen are great, some of them even finishing in the top five,” Johnson said. “Having depth is good when running distance.”
Johnson said he has focused on leading by example week-in and week-out to encourage the younger players. It is evident each runner knows what is at stake next weekend and is extremely focused.
The female counterparts said they feel the exact same way. The women’s team is also looking to make an improvement from last year after finishing eighth in the SEC Championships.
Junior Chloe Phillips, whose mother ran distance at Oregon State University, said as long as the girls keep the pace they are supposed to keep, everything will go according to plan.
“I think we started kind of slow last week, and it ultimately hurt us in the end,” Phillips said. “Third place isn’t a bad place to finish, but we let them get ahead of us early. We’re certainly hoping and expecting to do better next week.”
Phillips said she is making sure she stays focused and gets plenty of rest leading up to the big event.
The cross country teams are looking to make some noise next weekend in Nashville when the SEC Championships get underway early on Oct. 26.