STARKVILLE — It has been a long time coming for Houston Franks and the Mississippi State women’s cross country program.
The seventh-year coach coach took over the program in 2009 and knew immediately he wanted to lead the Bulldogs to an appearance in the NCAA Championships. He has saw last year’s team on the verge of making it, but things just didn’t work out. This year is a different story though as MSU qualified for the NCAA Championships.
“It’s probably similar to Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon,” Franks said. “It’s a big step. We’ve had some really great individuals here over the years. We’ve had a lot of individuals make it over the years, we’ve just never had the whole team.”
As a team, the Bulldogs placed second at the South Regionals Nov. 13 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to qualify for this year’s NCAA Championships. It is the first appearance ever in program history which began in 1985. Franks will take seven runners to compete in the 6K race at 11 a.m. (NCAA.com stream) Saturday at E.P. ‘Tom’ Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky.
Last season, Rhianwedd Price competed as an individual at the NCAA Championships held in Terre Haute, Indiana. The All-American placed 24th with a time of 20:30.00.
This year, junior Price will be accompanied by teammates senior Cornelia Griesche, senior Marta Freitas, junior Lisa Ziegler, junior Ffion Price twin sister of Rhianwedd, sophomore Mia Meydrich, and freshman Shannon Fair. Freshman Antonia Hehr will server as the alternate.
Franks joked that Rhianwedd is probably the most excited about having the entire team there to give her some familiar faces to hang out with, but it’s a big step for the team as a whole.
“I’m excited that we made it to nationals,” Griesche said. “I’m excited everyone can go and we can show what we are capable of doing.”
Most of the team also competes in track and field and Franks had a good feeling watching his runners compete in the spring that the fall was going to be a good season for cross country, especially with the distance runners.
Rhianwedd won the NCAA title in the 1,500-meter run, while Griesche finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2015 Southeastern Conference Championships.
“Last track season you could see the distance group had come to that point where we were one of the better distance groups in the country and we were confident that we should get in as long as we stayed healthy,” Franks said. “We were fortunate enough to do that.”
The Bulldogs also finished second in the SEC Championships Oct. 30 in College Station, Texas. As an individual, Freitas finished ninth at the SEC Championships and sixth at the South Regionals. The best finish of the season for the Lisbon, Portugal, native came Sept. 19 at the Commodore Classic in Nashville, Tennessee. Freitas finished second in the 5K with a time of 17:02.20.
Rhianwedd’s best finish of the season came at the South Regionals as she finished 10th with a time of 20:34.34. Griesche’s best finish came Sept. 26 at the Panorama Farms Invite in Charlottesville, Virginia. She finished 12th with a time of 17:28.50 in the 5K.
Franks says this has been the easiest coaching job of his career because of the experience and veteran leadership he has, but to his surprise, many have stepped up.
“I think the entire team just as a group is all together,” Griesche said. “We work together, we practice together, and you couldn’t do it with one person. You need the entire team.”
The best finish outside of Freitas has come from Meydrich. The New Orleans, Louisiana, native took fifth place Sept. 5 in the Memphis Twilight. He ran a time of 17:37.16 in the 5K.
The Bulldogs will run seven athletes with the top five finishers contributing in the MSU score. Each team vies for the lowest amount of points and an individual’s points are based on where they finish (i.e. if a runner finishes first, they receive one point).
The two players who finish sixth and seventh for MSU won’t count towards the point total, but they can affect other teams.
“I like our chances,” Franks said. “I think we’re going to do pretty well.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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