Vanderbilt Cross Country traveled to College Station, Texas, to compete in the SEC Championships on Nov. 1. The women’s team finished 9th out of 16 schools while the men’s team finished 13th out of 14. Both sides saw a slight dip in their final placements relative to last season with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference; however, for the first time in three seasons, the men’s team did not finish last at the meet.
“While the SEC is different [from last season], every school in the SEC has a standard and an expectation to get better,” director of cross country Althea Thomas said. “Adding those two schools makes a big difference, and there’s a lot of schools that have gotten a lot better.”
Senior Julia Rosenberg led the women’s team in the 6-kilometer race, coming in 27th place with a time of 19 minutes and 59.2 seconds. Next were graduate transfer Ellie Wolski and first-year Claire Petersen, who finished with times of 20:06.3 (37th place) and 20:17.6 (48th place), respectively — rounding out the Commodores’ top-50 finishes. Seniors Ella Lambert and Cameron Fawcett also finished in the top 100 with times of 20:42.2 (57th) and 20:55 (96th), respectively.
“How the ladies performed, how they executed the plan, was perfect,” Thomas said. “It sets us up to be able to go to [NCAA] Regionals and build on it.”
First-year Michael Skora once more led the way for the men’s team, finishing in 60th place in the 8-kilometer race with a time of 24:05.9. Sophomore Brady Bliven was close behind in 64th place with a time of 24:12, while fellow sophomore Mitchell Drees came in 89th with a time of 24:41. Rounding out the Commodores in the top 100 was junior Dylan Ballard, who finished in 24:41.9 — good for 90th place. In a fitting twist of irony, the team Vanderbilt finished above was LSU — Thomas’ alma mater.
“We were really proud of the men,” assistant coach Chad Balyo said. “I’m really pumped about the future of where the men are going, and I think that [today] was a great representation of what we can be.”
Vanderbilt Cross Country will have one week off before traveling to Tallahassee, Florida, for the NCAA South Region Championships on Nov. 15. The NCAA Championships will follow on Nov. 23 in Madison, Wisconsin.
