TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Mississippi State women’s cross country team won its first regional title in program history by one point Friday at the NCAA South Regional at Apalachee Regional Park.
Freshman Stephanie Peterson, MSU’s sixth-place runner, made a push at the end of the race to propel her past No. 14 Ole Miss’ fifth-place runner. That surge secured MSU’s victory and its second-straight trip to Nationals in Terre Haute, Indiana.
“This is a huge step for us,” MSU coach Houston Franks said. “We were able to qualify last year for Nationals, and to do it once is hard. Doing it again a second year in a row is even more difficult. I have told people our team is a ticking time bomb, in a good way. We were going to blow up and put a race together that would surprise some people. We got fourth in SEC Championships, and I am glad we are to a point in the program that we were disappointed with fourth. We put it together today and good things happened.”
A program-record five Bulldogs — Rhianwedd Price, Shannon Fair, Ffion Price, Antonia Hehr, and Mia Meydrich — made the All-Region team by finishing in the top 25.
Rhianwedd Price was MSU’s top performer, placing fifth in the 6-Kilometer event with a time of 20 minutes, 16.1 seconds. Fair was 13th (20:26.9), Ffion Price was 15th (20:43.6), Hehr was 16th (20:43.7), Meydrich was 22nd (20:49.8), Peterson was 27th (20:57.7), and Kristy Terp was 116th (22:36).
Those finishes helped MSU edge Ole Miss 66-67.
Junior Emily Bean led the way for Ole Miss with a 10th-place finish (20:27.8), which is the second-best finish by an Ole Miss woman at the South Regional. Bo Ummels and Mary Alex England finished 11th and 12th, respectively.
The women also made history as five runners earned All-Region honors. Britt Ummels and Shelby Brown rounded out the All-Region list. The five All-Region women runners in 2016 matches the total number of All-Region honors the women had earned since the program began 31 years ago.
MSU is the first women’s cross country team in the history of the state to capture a Regional crown. The Bulldogs will return to the NCAA Championships on Saturday, Nov. 19, where it will compete for its first national title in school history.
“We ran with some unbelievable tenaciousness and toughness today,” Franks said. “That was fun to watch. We really got in there and were aggressive. We raced to win.”
The MSU men concluded their season with a 15th-place finish in the 24-team 10K. Freshman Stephen Jones paced the Bulldogs with a time of 32:26.4.
Aaron Phelps was 82nd (32:44.7), Eryk Yunk was 90th (32:49.8), Tristan Orman was 95th (32:55.5), JT Mackay was 109th (33:13.8), Quintin Reiser was 117th (33:29.1), and Pierce Rose was 130th (33:54.7).
The No. 11 Ole Miss won the men’s team title with 46 points. Middle Tennessee State finishes second (61 points).
It marked the first time in school history the men’s and women’s cross country teams will conclude their season at the NCAA Championships.
“Today was a banner day for our program,” Ole Miss coach Ryan Vanhoy said. “To be able and have both the men’s and women’s teams representing Ole Miss at the NCAA Championships is a huge accomplishment.”
The men ran away with the team title for their second regional championship in three years (2014).
Five Rebels finished in the top 15 of the 10-K race. Senior MJ Erb led the charge with a seventh-place finish (30:33.7).
Wesley Gallagher, Sean Tobin, and Robert Domanic finished eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively. Craig Engels (12th) rounded out the Rebels’ top five.
All five of the Rebels’ top runners received All-Region honors by placing top 25. This is the third-straight year the men have five All-Region runners. Domanic became the only Ole Miss runner to ever receive All-Region honors four years in a row.
The Alabama men’s and women’s teams finished fourth.
Seniors Robbie Farnham-Rose and Antibahs Kosgei qualified for the NCAA Men’s Cross Country Championships with top-six finishes.
Farnham-Rose finished third in a personal-best time of 30:24.1 to earn his first trip to the NCAA Championships. Kosgei, the defending South Regional champion, finished sixth (30:33.1) to earn his second trip to nationals.
Senior Conner Thompson finished 22nd in a personal-best time of 31:11.4 to join Farnham-Rose and Kosgei on the All-South Region team.
In the women’s race, Hannah Waggoner led the way with a 26th-place finish (20:54.7) to earn All-South Region honors.
The fourth-place finish is the fourth consecutive top-four finish for the Tide women at the South Regional.
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