Nov. 3, 2008
STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Vanderbilt Cross Country teams will enter conference competition at the SEC Championship this morning at the Mississippi State Cross Country Course in Starville, Miss. The women will run in the 6k race at 10 a.m. CT, the men in 8k at 11 a.m. CT.
Both Commodore squads have shown steady progress throughout the fall season, heading toward the SEC Championship. Head Coach Steve Keith’s runners have improved their times from meet to meet, and have gained valuable experience over the past two months.
“The previous races obviously give you a good view of your strengths and weaknesses,” Keith said, “so, we’ve worked on different things from race to race.
“One issue at Pre-Nationals and at Louisville (Greater Louisville Classic) was being a little bit more agressive, and we were at Pre-Nationals. But, we really have to throw ourselves into this next one, in order to be involved early and have a connection with the people we want to race with.”
The Arkansas Razorbacks return as the defending men’s and women’s SEC champions and have won the last 17 men’s titles and the last two women’s titles. Both squads travel to Starkville nationally ranked, No. 26 (men) and No. 13 (women). The Commodores will also compete with No. 14 Florida in the women’s bracket, and No. 5 Alabama and No. 11 Auburn on the men’s side.
“We have a great challenge ahead of us. Florida and Arkansas are top-ranked programs, and they’ve shown that they should separate themselves a little bit,” Keith remarked about the women’s meet. “The next four teams of Tennessee, Kentucky, Auburn and Georgia are teams that we want to run with and will try to match ourselves up with well.
“That’s the big challenge. That would mean the top six if we could knock one of those teams off. We’re close, and it’s just a matter of trying to match up with them early”
Highlights from the Championship will air on FSN’s SEC-TV on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 6:30 p.m. ET.
