MSU men’s and women’s cross country finished in the top 15 Saturday at the Chili Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville.
The men came in 11th out of 29 teams with 300 points, while the women came in 15th out of 34 teams with 444 points.
Oklahoma State’s men won first with 21 points. Texas Tech’s women won first with 35 points.
Host Arkansas came in third for both men’s and women’s.
MSU beat SEC foe Louisiana State University, which came in 25th for men and 27th for women.
The race was the first 10K race for the men of the season.
Senior Adam Lenz came in at 41st individually at 31:25.83. Seniors Daniel Simpkins and Cameron Vincent followed shortly after at 54th in 31:45.25 and 60th places in 31:52.83, respectively.
Senior Simone Domingue led the women at 47th place in 22:27.81.
Freshman Chloe Phillips finished at 50th in 22:32.94 while sophomore Loren Bruce came in 106th at 23:26.88.
Sophomore Domonique Lockhart ran with an illness. Sophomore Renee Masterson injured a nerve in her calf and is sidelined indefinitely.
Assistant coach Houston Franks said he was very pleased with the men’s effort and toughness.
The men’s group needs to work better with one another during the race to prepare for the SEC meet, he said. Running in a pack is the major issue for the young team.
“It doesn’t seem like running in a pack with your teammates makes a difference, but it makes a huge difference,” Franks said. “It’s just something that we are not doing a good job of, and we have got to do a better job of it.”
Lenz said the team has better teamwork than earlier in the season, but having young inexperienced runners is sometimes difficult.
He said talented runners are not always accustomed to running alongside other talented teammates in high school and have trouble running as a unit.
College distances are 8K and 10K whereas in high school the distance was 5K, so acclimating to a team mindset is more important in college. Running together aids the mindset more, he said.
“Mentally, it keeps you in the race and focused,” Lenz said.
Franks said the team did well at the beginning and end of the race, but could have moved more aggressively together in the middle of the race.
At the Greater Louisville Invitational two weeks ago, the team had a slow start, and had gotten into a hole, Franks said. He said he was pleased his team did not repeat the same mistake at Chili Pepper.
Lenz is trying to rebound from illness. He said he has had setbacks in his training.
“I was hoping to perform a little bit better, but based on how things have been going, I was pleased with my race and everyone else’s,” he said. “Most of the guys on the team have done substantially better than two weeks ago.”
For the women, Schmidt said his group did well to outrun good teams, but did not run at full capacity.
He said the order of finish for the women did not meet the talent level.
Domingue said running with Phillips helped each of them, but said she could have been more aggressive during the race.
She said some of the girls had an off race, but said everyone has one from time to time.
“It was our first 6K, and for a lot of them it was the first 6K of their career,” she said. “So, for the next one they will have more experience. I’m sure we will be ready when it comes time for the SEC meet.”