The Mississippi State University men’s and women’s cross country teams are off to a fast start after Saturday’s Memphis Twilight Classic at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex. The women’s team won the team title and the men captured third place honors.
The Bulldog runners used this first meet to gauge their abilities and to see what needs to be improved.
The MSU women finished the meet with 58 points, just ahead of University of Alabama-Birmingham. UAB tallied 61 total points.
The Lady Dawgs were paced by junior Zita Magloire. Magloire placed fifth with a time of 17:27.44.
This meet marked the first time Magloire had led the MSU women finishers. According to Magloire finishing first on the team was not a goal for her.
“On any given day on our team you can finish anywhere from first to fourth,” Magloire said. “We just tried to stay together and run as a pack, which we were able to do.”
“My goals were to run a personal best and to be able to stay in a pack with my teammates,” she said. “We were able to stay in a group and finish with a minute of each other.”
Senior Meggan Hodge, who competed in her first meet since a back injury sidelined her last season, finished sixth with a time 17:29.88.
Jennifer McPherson also finishing in the top 10 for the Lady Dawgs. McPherson clocked a 17:34.27 on the three-mile course, which was good enough for ninth place.
Women’s head coach Al Schmidt praised the way his team started the season.
“This was a good victory.” Schmidt said in a release. “It was a tough race compared to last season. The team is happy with the win as a group.”
Freshman Jacqui Aubert ran a time of 18:00.02 and placed 15th overall, while freshman Annie Falor placed 30th overall. Magloire said she was especially proud of the freshmen on both the men’s and women’s teams. “The freshmen did a really good job on both teams,” Magloire said. “We had a freshman finish in the top five on the women’s team and several freshmen guys ran really good times.”
The men’s team finished the meet in third place behind last year’s Twilight champions Harding University and Southern Illinois.
Senior Gedamu Ege was the Bulldog’s top finisher. Ege finished in 12th place in a time of 20:19.53 on the four-mile course.
Men’s head coach Steve Dudley noted the differences in this year’s team and last year’s team that finished second at the Memphis meet.
“Our depth has improved over last year,” Dudley said. “We have also gotten better up front.”
The MSU men had five Bulldog runners finish in the top 25, including two freshmen. Freshman John Brigham notched a 21st place finish in a time of 20:41.33, while fellow freshman Robert Scribner finished 24th with a time of 20:53.24.