Saturday, November 19
Terre Haute, Ind.
All Day
Mississippi State
vs
NCAA Championship
The No. 19 MSU women are looking to bring home the first national championship in school history
No. 19 Bulldogs Set For NCAA Cross Country Championships
November 18, 2016 | Cross Country
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – For the second-consecutive year, the No. 19 MSU women will see their season end at the very last meet.
Last week in Tallahassee, Florida, the Bulldogs won the South Region Championship for the first time in program history, edging out then 14th-ranked Ole Miss 66-67. With the win, MSU qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the second-straight year after doing so for the first time in program history last season.
The 2015 squad posted a second place finish at Regionals, and rode that momentum to a school-best 17th-place finish at Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky.
"Last year we were 17th, and ultimately our goal every year is to be better than we were the year before," MSU coach Houston Franks said. "That is how we approach everything. It is a day-to-day thing, and eventually we are going to get to where we want to be. If we run well, I do not know what our end can be. I think it can be really good. The difference in being 10th and being 30th in this meet is so miniscule."
Franks was named South Region Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA earlier in the week, the first such award in the history of the program.
Senior All-American Rhianwedd Price will be making her third-consecutive appearance at Nationals after qualifying individually in 2014. Price was MSU's lead runner at Regionals, grabbing a 5th place finish in the 6K event. Four Bulldogs ran personal best times at Regionals, including Ffion Price, Shannon Fair, Stephanie Peterson and Kristy Terp.
The cross country team's appearance at nationals in back-to-back seasons is another step forward for a track & field program that has been on a steady march to national prominence for the past 10 seasons.
"The trend of the program for many, many years has been moving upward," Franks said. "Now for the last three or four years, the track & field program has had a lot of national champions. That is awesome, and it is where we want to go. It goes back many, many years of laying solid foundations on the ground, and doing it with good people. We have done it with people that are really hard working and were willing to buy into a selfless idea of getting everyone better together. There were many years we were going in the right direction where we may not have been getting the results, but we knew they were coming. Now we are getting to reap the benefits of some of it. Quite honestly, we are not at the end of the game yet. We want to keep climbing, and we want to be a national contender perennially."
The women's 6K race at the LaVerne Gibson Championship Cross Country Course begins at 10 a.m. CT, and can be live streamed here (requires FloTrack.com subscription).
For more information on the MSU cross country team, follow the program on Twitter, like them on Facebook and join them on Instagram by searching @HailStateTF. You can also find all access coverage on SnapChat by searching 'HailStateSnap'.
Last week in Tallahassee, Florida, the Bulldogs won the South Region Championship for the first time in program history, edging out then 14th-ranked Ole Miss 66-67. With the win, MSU qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the second-straight year after doing so for the first time in program history last season.
The 2015 squad posted a second place finish at Regionals, and rode that momentum to a school-best 17th-place finish at Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky.
"Last year we were 17th, and ultimately our goal every year is to be better than we were the year before," MSU coach Houston Franks said. "That is how we approach everything. It is a day-to-day thing, and eventually we are going to get to where we want to be. If we run well, I do not know what our end can be. I think it can be really good. The difference in being 10th and being 30th in this meet is so miniscule."
Franks was named South Region Coach of the Year by the USTFCCCA earlier in the week, the first such award in the history of the program.
Senior All-American Rhianwedd Price will be making her third-consecutive appearance at Nationals after qualifying individually in 2014. Price was MSU's lead runner at Regionals, grabbing a 5th place finish in the 6K event. Four Bulldogs ran personal best times at Regionals, including Ffion Price, Shannon Fair, Stephanie Peterson and Kristy Terp.
The cross country team's appearance at nationals in back-to-back seasons is another step forward for a track & field program that has been on a steady march to national prominence for the past 10 seasons.
"The trend of the program for many, many years has been moving upward," Franks said. "Now for the last three or four years, the track & field program has had a lot of national champions. That is awesome, and it is where we want to go. It goes back many, many years of laying solid foundations on the ground, and doing it with good people. We have done it with people that are really hard working and were willing to buy into a selfless idea of getting everyone better together. There were many years we were going in the right direction where we may not have been getting the results, but we knew they were coming. Now we are getting to reap the benefits of some of it. Quite honestly, we are not at the end of the game yet. We want to keep climbing, and we want to be a national contender perennially."
The women's 6K race at the LaVerne Gibson Championship Cross Country Course begins at 10 a.m. CT, and can be live streamed here (requires FloTrack.com subscription).
For more information on the MSU cross country team, follow the program on Twitter, like them on Facebook and join them on Instagram by searching @HailStateTF. You can also find all access coverage on SnapChat by searching 'HailStateSnap'.
Welcome to @XCTownUSA #NCAAXC #HailState pic.twitter.com/jrvmShKaBr
— MSU Track & Field (@HailStateTF) November 18, 2016
Players Mentioned
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
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