The Mississippi State cross country squad placed 15th out of 31 teams in the Great American Classic Friday night in Rock Hill, S.C. The meet featured seven of the nation’s top-25 cross country teams, including last year’s SEC champion Arkansas, who finished fourth, and last year’s national runner-up Brigham Young University, who placed second in the team competition.
The Bulldogs were led by junior Christine Zawaski (18:32.6), who placed 60th in the field of top runners from across the country. Freshman Meggan Hodge came in with a time of 18:54.0, earning 82nd place on the evening.
Ronni Watjus (19:22.4), a junior on Coach Al Schmidt’s team, finished in 107th place. She was followed by three freshman teammates, Trina Hobyan (19:37.8), Jackie Rentschler (20:38.2) and Cassie Hanan (20:48.6), who placed 123rd, 203rd and 209th, respectively. Junior Martha Hudsonpillar came in 258th place.
BYU senior Tara Northcutt won the Great American Classic with a time of 16:56.3 on the 5K course at Winthrop Farm. North Carolina State University won the team competition.
“This is a good race for us to run,” Schmidt said. “We need to be in big races like this for the experience. We are confident that we will beat some of these teams later in the year. We were right there with them tonight.”
The Bulldogs have next weekend off before traveling to South Bend, Ind. to run in the Notre Dame Invitational on the Notre Dame Burke Golf Course on Friday, Oct. 5.