The men and women’s cross country team opened their seasons with second place finishes at the Mississippi State Invitational this weekend.
Senior Cullen Doody won the men’s race with a new personal record of 25:23.42 for the 8000-meter. Doody shattered his old personal best by more than a minute.
“It’s not like it was the [Southeastern Conference] conference meet or anything, but it’s still really fun to win,” Doody said. “To put three guys under 26 minutes at the beginning of the year, that was almost more exciting than season.”
The Tigers finished with 46 points counted against them, behind Mississippi State’s 20, who placed 12 runners in the top 16.
The Lady Tigers finished second to Mississippi State’s perfect score of 15 points with 55 points counted against them. The top six finishers were from Mississippi State followed by junior Lady Tiger Leigh-Ann Naccari, who ran 18:56.28 for the 5000-meter.
“I thought I did pretty well, I got the [personal record] I had during last track season so I think that’s a good starting point,” Naccari said.
Juniors Dakota and Brea Goodman were the next two finishers for the Lady Tigers, running 19:28.50 and 19:39.64, respectively.
Junior Laura Aleman ran 19:47.72, sophomore Baylor transfer Ericka Wilk ran 21:09.57 and junior Lindsey Roe ran 22:50.69.
Redshirt sophomore Christine Derbins ran 21:09.57 and redshirt freshman Michelle Mobley ran 22:07.83.
Freshman Andria Aguilar had a particularly strong showing in her first collegiate race running 19:50.49.
“The new girls did pretty well for their first race,” Naccari said. “I think the team did pretty well