Mississippi State
NCAA Regional
MState Men's Cross Country Team Takes Fifth At Regionals; Women 12th
November 10, 2007 | Cross Country
For the second straight race, the Bulldogs were led by senior Ashenafi Arega, placing 22nd, with a time of 31:31.75. Freshman Ben Blakenship captured 25th place, running 31:42.83 while junior Jonathan Rono finished one place behind in 26th with a time of 31:45.00. Junior Robert Scribner took 28th place, crossing the line at 31:49.92 with sophomore Michael Chapa finishing in 40th place with a time of 32:15.97. Freshman Adam Lenz (34:24.96) and senior Pad Judd (34:40.15) finished 93rd and 100th, respectively.
“I am very happy with fifth place in the region, said Men's Head Coach Steve Dudley. That is the highest that we have finished in a regional. So we are happy with that. Obviously, we would like to be going to nationals, but this coaching staff has to work a little harder recruiting and our kids have to continue to work as hard as they have been. If we do that eventually we can go to nationals. I do want to thank Pad Judd and Ashenafi Arega. Those are our two seniors. They were some of the founding fathers of the program getting started (back) five years ago. I am very happy with them and I appreciate everything they put in for us as a program at Mississippi State.”
Eight Southeastern Conference teams competed in the NCAA Regional on the men's side with Alabama taking top team honors, garnering 28 points. Florida finished in third place with 82 points, while Auburn came in sixth with 152 points. Georgia came in seventh, tallying 176 points while Tennessee edged Georgia, taking eighth with 178 points. Vanderbilt (384 points) and Mississippi (486 points) finished in 14th and 16th places, respectively rounding out the SEC finishes.
MSU's women were paced by freshman Sarah Hammes, who finished 26th, with a time of 21:48.98. Senior Annie Falor placed 37th, running 22:07.98. Freshman Simone Domingue took 48th place, crossing the line at 22:36.35.
“We had a great season with those freshmen (Simone Domingue and Sarah Hammes) and Annie (Falor), said Women's Head Coach Al Schmidt. We didn't run Lizzie (Grube) because of her injury. It was a tough season, but we had some bright spots.”
Seven Southeastern Conference teams scored on the women's side with three finishing in the top five. Georgia took second place, gathering 75 points. Florida followed in third place with 94 points and Tennessee came in fourth place with 152 points. Vanderbilt took 11th place with 295 points while Auburn finished close behind MState in 14th place with 324 points. Mississippi placed 20th tallying 513 points.
