2008 SEC Men's Cross Country Championship Preview

LRC 2008 SEC Men's Cross Country Championship Preview: The buck stops at 34 in a row: Razorbacks need a miracle to continue their SEC streak

October 29, 2008
By LetsRun.com
*Disagree with our predictions? Vote in our NCAA Polls (National and Conference Voting) or email us
*LetsRun.com NCAA XC Conference Polls from 10/17/08

2008 Meet Info: The 2008 Men's and Women's SEC XC Championship meet will be held Monday, November 3 in Starksville, Mississippi at 10AM (women's) and 11AM (men's).
2007 SEC Results

Ever since we started following cross country, there was always one constant that we could count on: the Arkansas men would be victorious at their conference meet. Remarkably for 34 years in a row - all under the tutealge of John McDonnell - that was true.

Now in year one of the post-McDonnell era, it appears that the streak is doomed to be over. The SEC meet is actually up for grabs for a school other than the Razorbacks this year as Arkansas is down and several other schools are up. The Hogs are in so much trouble we're not sure even McDonnell could pull it off.

Scoring Meet Removing Last Year's Seniors:
1. Alabama (66)
2. Arkansas (70) (counting Barnicle who no longer is there)
3. Tennessee (79)
4. Florida (81)
5. Mississippi State (121)
6. Auburn (151)
7. LSU (178)
8. Georgia (185)
9. Kentucky (216)
10. Vanderbilt (288)
11. Mississippi (incomplete score)

2008 PRE NCAA Results Combined Scoring:
1. Alabama 187 points
2. Auburn 375
3. Florida 635
4. Tennessee 1,061
5. Mississippi St. 1,333
6. Mississippi 2,043
7. Georgia 2,105

Even if Arkansas was, say, as good as Auburn (currently #11 in the national poll), we would give them very little chance up against this year's Alabama squad. The Crimson Tide (#5-ranked nationally) runners took it to the field at Pre-Nats, finishing first in their race with an average time of 23:54, and their 5th man at 24:24, good for 43rd in the race. Looking at returning scorers from last year's SEC meet, Alabama should be the favorite as their guy Emmanuel Bor is the #1 returner in the league and he had two 'Bama boys ahead of him at Pre-Nats. Alabama is so good that even John McDonnell would have a hard time beating them this year, although we will point out he found a way to beat them the last few years when on paper they were probably a little better than the Hogs.

Alabama, we guarantee, will not go 1-3 at SECs because Auburn has some great Kenyan front runners. They placed 4th in their race at Pre-Nats with 3 under 24:00, but their 4 and 5 are weak-ER (not weak) when compared with Alabama. Arkansas is in real trouble. They got smoked at their home invite by a Texas A&M team that is only ranked 18th in the country. Arkansas and Florida should battle it out for 3rd, but it's hard to imagine Arkansas losing that battle. Looking at their performance at Chile Pepper, MacPherson is really good, but their 4 and 5 might really hurt them at conference. Florida's 4 and 5 aren't the best when compared with Alabama and Auburn either, both running around 25:00 at Pre-Nats.

Behind the 4 ranked SEC teams, you have Tennessee. The Vols, if you take out the seniors from last year's SEC results, are the #3 returning team. However, after Pre-Nats they are way behind the top 4 and it would take a big step up for them to get in the top third of the league. But after them (and maybe Kentucky, who finished a respectable 7th at Penn State), the rest of the league is mediocre to just plain weak. The next best team is probably Mississippi State, and they were 22nd in their race at Pre-Nats. Georgia and Mississippi were 39th and 38th in their respective Pre-Nats races, which just ain't gettin' it done in a field of 40 teams. Expect them to bring up the rear with Vanderbilt.

Unlike some conferences, the SEC teams pretty much all line up at Pre-NCAAs and duke it out for a nice pre-conference meet. The notable exception are the Arkansas Razorbacks. Ironically, the Razorbacks might not make a single trip to Terre Haute, as it will be a tough task for them to advance out of their region to NCAAs. For our individual predictions, it's hard to vote against Alabama's Tyson David, winner of his section in Terre Haute in a stout (but not Chelanga-esque in greatness) 23:30. The front-end talent in this league is absolutely phenomenal, as no less than 7 SEC runners broke 23:50 at Terre Haute this year alone, and one can be sure Arkansas stud Scott MacPherson would have been mixing it up in that range as well, had he been there. So if you are cracking the top 8 at SECs you are in the running for All-American at NCAAs.

LRC 2008 SEC Team Predictions:
1. #4 Alabama - A dominant victory
2. #11 Auburn - A clear second
3. #28 Florida
4. #26 Arkansas - 4th? It's possible!

5. Tennessee

6. Kentucky

7. Mississippi St.

8. LSU

9. Mississippi

10. Georgia

11. Vanderbilt

LRC 2008 SEC Individual Predictions:

1. Tyson David (Ala)

2. Jeremy Criscione (FL)

3. Felix Kibioywo (Aub)

4. Emmanuel Bor (Ala)

5. Augustus Maiyo (Ala)

6. Girma Mesecho (Aub)

7. Elkanah Kibet (Aub)

8. Scott MacPherson (Ark)

9. Abraham Kutingala (Ala)

10. Joseph Simuchimba (LSU)

2007 Top SEC Teams

1. Arkansas 36

2. Florida 74

3. Alabama 82

4. Tennessee 102

5. Mississippi St. 138

6. Auburn 158

2007 Top SEC Individuals

1 Bor, Emmanuel SO Univ. of Alabama 23:50.45 1

2 Criscione, Jeremy JR Univ. of Florida 23:56.28 2

3 Forrest, Shawn SR Univ. of Arkansas 23:57.39 3

4 Kutingala, Abraham JR Univ. of Alabama 24:07.91 4

5 Hill, Tyler SR Univ. of Arkansas 24:10.64 5

6 Kiboiywo, Felix SO Auburn Univ. 24:14.68 6

7 Kirwa, Andrew FR Univ. of Alabama 24:15.64 7

8 Barnicle, Chris JR Univ. of Arkansas 24:19.46 8

9 MacPherson, Scott JR Univ. of Arkansas 24:22.71 9

10 Simuchimba, Joseph JR Louisiana State 24:23.73 10

11 Munoz, Matt SR Univ. of Arkansas 24:32.64 11

12 Blaney, Sean SO Univ. of Florida 24:39.70 12

13 Press, Andrew JR Univ. of Tennessee 24:42.70 13

14 Tobin, Steve JR Univ. of Tennessee 24:43.91 14

Hypothetical results based on returners from 2007 conference meet + selected results from major 2008 meets

In listing a score for the returners, we remove last year's seniors and score the hypothetical meet in a normal fashion; i.e., runners who were outside a team's top 7 last year but move into the top 7 when seniors are removed have been counted as scorers or displacers. Returning runners who remain outside their team's top 7 do not figure into either scoring or displacing and count as extras.

Obviously, some runners listed as retuners will, in fact, not be running this season. New recruits or transfers will also clearly have an immediate impact, as will runners left off of last year's squads who may have improved dramatically this year. These lists are merely a reflection of what the teams' returning conference runners did at last year's meet and how they would have placed if last year's seniors were removed - nothing more, nothing less.

Below each team's returners, the most recent major 2008 results are given (e.g., Pre-Nationals).

1. Alabama (66)

Emmanuel Bor (1)
Abraham Kutingala (3)
Andrew Kirwa (5)
Titus Koeh (13)
Paul Guevara (44)
Joe Purpura (52)
(only 6 returning finishers)

2008 Pre-Nats

1. 89 Alabama (23:54.9 119:34.1)

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1 1 43 Tyson David 23:30.1

2 5 49 Augustus Maiyo 23:39.6

3 9 41 Emmanuel Bor 23:48.4

4 31 48 Abraham Kutingala 24:12.0

5 43 46 Andrew Kirwa 24:24.0

6 (148) 45 Zac Edwards 25:16.2

2. Arkansas (70)

Chris Barnicle (6) (not running for them)
Scott MacPherson (7)
Lane Boyer (17)
Duncan Phillips (18)
Michael Chinchar (22)
Rio Reina (23)
Daniel LaCava (30)

1. TEXAS A&M (#18 in most recent polls)

2 8 13 14 15 (46) (50) = 52

Shadrack Songok, Kevin McNab, Mitch Bible, Kevin Ondrasek, Joe

Sauvageau, Logan Sherman, Kevin Burnett

2. ARKANSAS

4 11 12 23 25 (33) (34) = 75

Scott MacPherson, Daniel Lacava, Andy McClary, Alex McClary, Eric

Fernandez, Duncan Phillips, Lane Boyer

3. Tennessee (79)

Andrew Press (10)
Steve Tobin (11)
Denton Jones (12)
Michael Spooner (20)
Yarrick Kincaid (26)
Chris Rapp (38)
Chris Kane (41)

2008 Pre-Nats

22. 530 Tennessee (24:55.3 124:36.3)

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1 45 1353 Michael Spooner 24:24.8

2 52 1351 Andrew Press 24:28.3

3 140 1352 Chris Rapp 25:11.7

4 141 1354 Steven Tobin 25:11.8

5 152 1345 Mike Brodsky 25:19.7

6 (187) 1349 Chris Kane 25:37.0

7 (204) 1344 Chris Bodary 25:45.3

4. Florida (81)

Jeremy Criscione (2)
Sean Blaney (9)
Justin Taylor (19)
Matt Hensley (24)
Aaron Kindt (27)
(only 5 returning finishers)

2008 Pre-Nats

12. 328 Florida (24:29.5 122:27.2)

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1 6 420 Jeremy Criscione 23:38.7

2 44 429 Justin Taylor 24:22.1

3 50 419 Sean Blaney 24:24.4

4 108 424 Aaron Kindt 24:58.2

5 120 426 Anthony Morales 25:03.8

6 (167) 422 Matt Hensley 25:27.9

7 (236) 423 Josh Izewski 26:23.5

5. Mississippi State (121)

Robert Scribner (15)
Ben Blankenship (16)
Jonathan Rono (21)
Michael Chapa (33)
Matthew Cameron (36)
Adam Lenz (39)
Andrew Prieshoff (54)

2008 Pre-Nats

26. 665 Mississippi St. (25:11.4 125:56.7)

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1 46 888 Adam Lenz 24:22.4

2 47 891 Robert Scribner 24:22.9

3 141 890 Jonathan Rono 25:15.0

4 212 893 Cameron Vincent 25:55.0

5 219 884 Matthew Cameron 26:01.4

6 (252) 894 Mitch Weegman 26:53.9

7 (256) 892 Daniel Simpkins 27:14.5

6. Auburn (151)

Felix Kiboiywo (4)
Scott Novack (29)
Joby Peake (32)
Chase Oliver (37)
Mark Fleming (49)
Charles Mitchell (67)
Simon Nyang (68)

2008 Pre-Nats

4. 194 Auburn (24:06.5 120:32.5)

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1 2 96 Felix Kibioywo 23:35.5

2 5 98 Girma Mesecho 23:37.5

3 11 95 Elkanah Kibet 23:46.2

4 58 99 Scott Novack 24:30.1

5 118 97 Julian Matthews 25:03.2

6 (168) 100 Joby Peake 25:28.2

7. LSU (178)

Joseph Simuchimba (8)
Jacob Simmons (14)
Alan Sticker (48)
Richard Chautin (50)
Michael Florek (58)
Michael Hendry (59)
Reuben Twijukye (63)

8. Georgia (185)

Ross Ridgewell (25)
Bejan Abtahi (31)
Corey Hunter (40)
Caleb Vogt (43)
Jesse Marino (46)
Dustin Tetley (47)
Nathan Frasier (51)

2008 Pre-Nats

39. 1050 Georgia (25:51.0 129:15.0)

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1 191 473 Jp Hackney 25:39.5

2 196 474 Corey Hunter 25:41.7

3 201 480 Dustin Tetley 25:44.2

4 227 476 Jesse Marino 26:02.6

9. Kentucky (216)

Adam Henken (28)
Bruce Hordusky (35)
Jacob Horton (42)
Eric Schmidt (55)
William Rover (56)
Matthew Wagner (61)
(only 6 returning finishers)

7. Kentucky
    6  Adam Henken, So             25:26    4:53
   35  Jeremy Zagorski, Jr         26:04    5:01
   46  Colin Heenan, Fr            26:12    5:02
   63  Bruce Hordusky, Sr          26:29    5:06
   67  John Luttrell, Fr           26:31    5:06
   78  Chris Long, Sr              26:39    5:07
   85  William Rover, Jr           26:44    5:08
Time = 2:10:40     Places = 217

10. Vanderbilt (288)

Thomas Davis (45)
Rob Whiting (57)
Matt Long (60)
Michael Nordlund (62)
James Kasten (64)
Peter DelNero (65)
(only 6 returning finishers)

11. Mississippi (incomplete score)

Gabriel Ngwiri (34)
Jephtah Kenei (53)
Chad Berry (66)
(only 3 returning finishers)

2008 Pre-Nats

38. 1008 Mississippi (26:59.6 134:57.9)

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1 71 871 Kyle Lewis 24:40.6

2 165 872 Gabriel Ngwiri 25:26.4

3 241 869 Chad Berry 26:29.3

4 265 873 Josh Porter 28:46.2

5 266 874 Alejandro Quintana 29:35.

*Disagree with our predictions? Vote in our NCAA Polls (National and Conference Voting) or email us
*LetsRun.com NCAA XC Conference Polls from 10/17/08