Cross Country Begins Postseason With SEC Championships
October 29, 2015 | Cross Country
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Postseason for the Mississippi State cross country teams begins Friday with the SEC Championships, hosted by Texas A&M.
After finishing fifth at the Pre-NCAA meet, the women's team jumped into the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association Poll at No. 13. SEC foes Arkansas and Vanderbilt are also ranked No. 4 and No. 26.
Last year the women's team placed fifth at this event, scoring 171 points.
In her first season of cross country, senior Marta Freitas has been a consistent No. 1 finisher for the Bulldogs. Currently, she holds the fifth-best 6K time in the SEC this season, which she ran at the Pre-NCAA meet to finish 12th with a time of 20:15.20.
Holding the sixth-best conference time, junior Rhianwedd Price ran a time of 20:17.70 to finish 14that the Pre-NCAA race. Rhianwedd Price recorded a fourth-place finish at last year's SEC Championships, earning her first-team All-SEC honors.
Cornelia Griesche enters her final SEC Cross Country Championships meet with the 16th best time this season in the conference. At last year's championships, Griesche finished second for MSU and 21st overall at 20:44.55.
Junior Lisa Ziegler and sophomore Mia Meydrich are both set to compete in the championship race. Meydrich recorded a personal-best in the 6K at the Pre-NCAA meet with a time of 21:03.00, knocking off over a minute off her previous best time of 22:30.60, which she ran at last year's NCAA South Regionals. This season Ziegler has run a time of 21:07.40 in the 6K, but her personal-best came at the 2014 SEC Championships where she clocked a time of 20:51.03.
Ffion Price, Shannon Fair and Antonia Hehr will all make their first appearance in the race. Ffion Price finished in MSU's Top 5 for the first time this season at the Pre-NCAA 6K race, clocking a time of 21:02.60, the 20th-best time in the conference this season.
In the first 6K of the season, Fair ran 21:21.60 to place 137th in the Pre-NCAA meet, while Hehr ran 21:42.20 at the Pre-NCAA Open meet earning ninth place.
Coming off a 15th-place finish at the Crimson Classic, the MSU men's team has put in a lot of work to prepare for the championships.
Looking to senior runners Mathew Dunn, Andrew Monaghan, Patrick Monaghan and Curtis Kelly, the men hope to improve last year's ninth-place team finish at the SEC Championships.
With eight runners set to race, Emilio Perco, JT Mackay, Tristan Orman and Pierce Rose will be competing in their first post-season meet.
Branden Nosker also returns to the SEC Championship with hopes of improving off his 69thfinish at last year's event. The sophomore ran his personal-best in the 8K earlier this season at the Panorama Farms invite, where he clocked a time of 25:56.90.
On the men's side, No. 8 Arkansas is the only ranked opponent..
The men's team is set to run the 8K at 10 a.m. CT Friday with the women's 6K race following at 11 a.m. at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course.
A recap of the meet will air on the SEC Network on Sunday, November 8 at 11:30 a.m. CT.
For more information on the MSU cross country teams and the SEC Championships go to HailState.com and follow on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (@HailStateTF).
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