The Murray State men’s and women’s cross-country team raced in the OVC Championship in Oxford, Ala Nov. 1.
The women finished fifth out of 12 OVC teams at the conference and the men matched their best finish under Head Coach Jenny Severns and finished eighth in the championship.
Severns said one of the most exciting moments at the OVC Championship was that two of her runners, Meagan Smith and Caroline Grogan, performed well for their first OVC Championship.
On the men’s team it was exciting that nearly all of the men set a personal record and it was good to see it all come together with the men giving it all they had, she said.
“I think that Meagan and Caroline are hungry for more and are really ready to get after and get those spots in the All-Conference in the future,” Severns said. “The men really went out there and gave it everything they had.”
The Racers did face a variety of challenges during the OVC Tournament from cold, windy weather conditions to injured players, but even with these challenges it did not prevent them fromsuceeding.
According to Severns, the biggest challenge the Racers faced at the championship was that one of the seniors, Abbie Oliver, injured her ankle a few days before the race.
Lucas Prather admited he weather wasn’t ideal.
“The cold weather did have a bit of an effect; it did not hurt me from running a lifetime personal best and I still just got up and ran, and raced my heart out,” Prather said.
In the next meet, Prather expects to run a lifetime best in the 10k, which is farther than what he ran this past weekend.
“I just want to run a lifetime best and be competitive with some big schools,” he said.
The Racers will continue to work hard because they are making progress working in their regular routines, Severns said.
“I think we need to keep doing what we are doing because we don’t lose anyone on either men or women’s teams that competed this past weekend, so it’s basically just about getting experience for the freshman and getting more experience for everybody else,” Severns said. “There is not anything crazy I would change people performed well and we will just figure out what we did well and learn from the things that didn’t go so well and move forward. ”
The Racers will compete in at the NCAA Tournament at 1:15 p.m. Nov. 14 in Louisville, Ky.
Staff Report