In Monday’s Southeastern Conference Cross Country Championships hosted by the University of Georgia, the Mississippi State women’s and men’s cross country teams finished seventh and eighth.
Junior Tiffany McWilliams led the Lady Bulldogs with an overall time of 22:05.12 in the 6K run for a fifth-place finish and earned All-SEC first team honors. The team tallied 162 points. Tennessee won the women’s title with 57 points.
Freshman Joy Griffith finished 24th with an overall time of 23:21.39.
“We were a little disappointed with the way we finished,” said women’s head coach Al Schmidt. “We had a couple of illnesses that affected us, but that’s why you race; you can’t always be on in every race.”
Junior Gedamu Ege led the men’s team in the 8K with an overall time of 26:33.85, finishing in 30th place.
“We would have liked to finish a few spots higher, but considering how young we are, to expect a SEC championship would have probably been a little strong,” said men’s head coach Steve Dudley.
Freshman Travis McKay finished second for the Bulldogs, completing his third career fastest time by finishing 41st with an overall time of 27:02.73.
“The competition was by far the best we had seen all year,” said McKay. “All and all I think it was a very good learning experience for such a young team.”
No. 8 Arkansas won the men’s division with 33 points.
Both teams return to action on Saturday, Nov. 15, as they travel to Auburn, Ala., to compete in the NCAA Regionals.
“We have to go there and just run it all out because we know this is gonna be a really hard meet,” Phillip Moore said.
“We have to beat Auburn because they have been beating us all year by just a couple of points,” Moore continued. “We just have to go there and run our guts out if we want to go on to the next level.”