Both the men and women’s cross country teams had a top 10 finish at the LSU Invitational this weekend, with the women’s team receiving its highest-ever regional ranking after its second place finishes during the past two meets.The women’s team had three Colonels finish in the top 10, with junior Lauren Jones leading the way and finishing third with a time of 19:25.69. Finishing right behind her were Brea and Dakota Goodman, who fought for eighth place, with Dakota clocking in at 19:45.75 to take eighth and Brea at 19:46.85 to take ninth.
Junior Jessica McLeod finished 17th with a time of 20:16.44, while junior Kadi Whisnant finished right behind McLeod with a time of 20:28.07, taking 19th place.
“I think the girls realized that we needed a good race to really get our identity out there,” head coach Matthew Esche said. “We’ve run well this year, but the girls really came through today. I asked them to do what they have already done plus a little bit more, and they delivered. Our goal was to get three in the top 15 and five in the top 30, and we were able to get three in the top 10 and five in the top 19. That made for a very exciting day.”
It was a team effort that allowed the Colonels to finish second, 16 points behind the Cougars of the University of Houston, who were defending last year’s Invitational title. However, the Colonels overcame other regional opponents, including Lamar, LSU, Tulane, Southeastern, UL-Lafayette and Southern, in its second place finish.
“It’s always important to beat other teams in your region anytime you line up against them,” Esche said. “The women really ran strong today against some really good programs and served notice that the way we ran at Mississippi State and Southern Miss. were not flukes.”
The men’s cross country team was able to pull off a ninth place finish lead by sophomore Tyler Folse, who had a time of 29:35.85.
“On the men’s side, I think we need to keep in mind that we are very young, and this was a good learning experience for us,” Esche said. “We’ve only been running five guys, and they’re all freshmen and sophomores. We’ve seen some improvement, but this is a reminder that we need to keep working. We haven’t backed off our training at all, and that will probably continue going all the way through to the conference meet.”
On Monday the women’s team was told it moved up three spots to number 11 in the South Central Regional Rankings of the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association. This is the highest ranking the cross country team has ever held.
The Colonels’ first regional ranking was two weeks ago, when they placed 14th in the preseason polls.
“I think it’s pretty cool that we’ve improved on our highest ranking,” Esche said. “Before this season we were never in the discussion for something like this; so now that we’re starting to turn some heads and get some recognition, it really is an honor.”
The Colonels’ move in rankings is a result of the team’s second place finish at the Mississippi State and LSU Invitationals.
“As nice as it is to be ranked 11th in the region, we are still the number three team in the Southland, and there are a lot of other conference teams right there with us. So, we can’t rest on that,” Esche said. “Now we’ve made other programs aware of how much we’ve improved, so they’re going to be ready for us. Now we have to be ready to go and keep proving that we belong with these teams.”
The Colonels hope to keep up its outstanding season when it participates in the Mississippi College Invitational Oct. 17 and the 2009 Southland Conference Championships Oct. 30.
The Colonels will take it easy this week and into the weekend after rain has accompanied almost all of its competitions and practices.
“We’ll back off a little this week,” Esche said. “We’ll give our runners time to take care of some blisters, aches and pains before Mississippi College, but then we’re going to get right back into all-out training. The conference meet is the last chance we will have to jump ahead of some more regional teams before the postseason, so we’ll have to go into the conference championship looking to validate these rankings.
