STARKVILLE, Miss. – After finishing higher than predicted at the SEC Championships two weeks ago, the Mississippi State cross country teams travel to Tallahassee, Fla., to compete in the NCAA South Regionals on Friday.

The women are coming off a 5th-place finish at the SEC Championships after being slated to finish sixth in the preseason. With the highest recorded individual finish in school history, Rhianwedd Price placed fourth with a personal-best time of 19:53.79 en route to earning first-team All-SEC honors.

“We are excited to go,” MSU coach Houston Franks said. “Hopefully, we will go and compete with some toughness. I’m expecting we will after coming off a solid conference performance.”

Going into regionals, the MSU women’s squad is seeded fifth behind Florida State, Vanderbilt, Alabama and Lipscomb.

“I would like to see us finish higher than we are seeded,” Franks said. “That’s always the goal. We have three athletes on the women’s side who are looking at going on individually. I think if we could get ourselves in the top five that would give us a chance.”

On the men’s side, MSU is predicted to finish 13th at the south regionals.

The men placed ninth at the SEC Championships after being picked to finish 10th. Damian Roszko finished 13thin the conference with a time of 24:54.91 in the 10K. Roszko was also named second-team All-SEC.

“On the men’s side we hope to finish in the Top 10,” Franks said. “There are 27 teams running this year. Our goal is to finish in the Top 10. I think if we run like we did at the conference championships, we have a shot. Damian has a good chance to individually qualify as well.” 

Both teams will be running in Tallahassee on the Apalachee Regional Park Cross Country course for the NCAA Regional. Last year, both the men and the women finished seventh.

The men’s race starts at 9 a.m., while the women run at 10 a.m.

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