Make it eight consecutive SEC championships for the University of Arkansas women’s cross country team.
The No. 1-ranked Razorbacks extended their title streak Friday in Baton Rouge when they won their latest conference championship with 41 points. Alabama was second with 57 points.
Senior Lauren Gregory led Arkansas with a fourth-place finish.
Alabama junior Mercy Chelangat won the 6,000-meter race in 19 minutes, 46.5 seconds.
The Razorbacks’ five scorers finished in the top 11, with Gregory followed by Logan Morris (seventh), Abby Gray (ninth), Taylor Ewert (10th) and Krissy Gear (11th).
“Any time you can win one SEC championship, it’s special,” Arkansas Coach Lance Harter said. “But to get this many consecutively, knowing there’s always a target on your back, makes it even more special. Everybody is going to give us their best shot.”
Gregory and Gray were the only returnees from Arkansas’ team that won SEC and NCAA titles last year.
“What’s super exciting is I think a lot of people kind of thought that we were going to be very vulnerable this year with Lauren and Abby as our only returnees,” Harter said. “But they instilled the culture we’ve established through the years and while we had a lot of new faces — whether it was transfers or freshmen — they just jumped right in and adopted the style that we go by and the camaraderie of the team.
“They carried that through all of our training right to this race.”
Gray took an early lead and set a fast pace.
“Abby took command of the race for the first mile,” Harter said. “I think what she did was establish that, ‘Hey, this isn’t going to be an easy race. We’re going to challenge you.’
“Then that inspired all of her teammates and forced everybody to put out their best effort. We weren’t going to let people just lollygag through it.”
Arkansas won its SEC-leading 21st cross country title — all under Harter — in 30 meets since joining the conference in 1991.
“It’s nice to know we’ve been able to stay competitive through the years,” he said.
Gregory finished in the top 10 at the SEC meet for the fourth consecutive year.
“Lauren’s such a great competitor, and we built this team around her,” Harter said. “She provides that consistent leadership. What’s really exciting is that she’s back next year as well. This year doesn’t count against her.”
The NCAA awarded an extra year of eligibility in all fall sports because of the coronavirus pandemic,.
“This whole team will be back, and we’re going to have a fantastic freshman class joining this force next year,” Harter said. “The future is very bright.”
The NCAA has postponed the national cross country meet until March, when it will be held just a few days after the NCAA indoor track and field championships.
Harter said the good thing for the Razorbacks is that they have enough distance runners — including All-Americans Taylor Werner and Katie Izzo, who have only track eligibility left — to successfully defend both the cross country and indoor NCAA titles Arkansas won in the spring and fall of 2019.
“We’re going to have options for indoor as well as cross country when the time comes in March,” Harter said. “We have enough depth that I think we can be competitive in both.”