Ruby DraayerOle Miss cross country had a successful day at the SEC Championship in Baton Rouge, La. last Friday with the men’s team finishing second in the 8k and the women’s team finishing third in the 6k. Ole Miss runners took all top three spots, sweeping the race for the first time since Alabama did so in 2017.
“On the whole, I think any time you have both teams in the top-three in the SEC, that’s not something that you are ashamed of,” UM head coach Ryan Vanhoy said in a press conference on Monday. “Obviously, finishing top-three in a Power-5 conference is a nice result, but I think here we always strive to finish a little bit better than that, whether that’s winning the conference or being top two.”
For the men’s race, junior Mario Garcia Romo finished first, and sophomore Cole Bullock and senior Waleed Suliman finished in a close 2nd and 3rd, making Ole Miss the 10th men’s team to ever podium sweep the SEC Championship.
“We were pretty fast at the end. We tried to just save energy during the race,” Garcia Romo said to the SEC Network. “When we started to go, I just followed Waleed. I didn’t know Cole was behind us. I think we closed pretty well and everything went like we planned it.”
Garcia Romo is one of only three Rebels to ever place first at an SEC cross country title. His win helped lead Ole Miss to second place overall, just behind Arkansas.
“It feels incredible. I’ve been dreaming about this for 11 months now,” Garcia Romo said. “I knew this was a goal I’ve had since I came (to Ole Miss). This is one of the biggest races of my life. This win means a lot to me. I couldn’t be more proud of this team. We did a really good job this year.”
Meanwhile, the women’s team was also able to place high in the competitive match up, coming in third place. Alabama took second place, and Arkansas won the top seat.
Senior Anna Elkin led the Rebels again as the Texas native came in eighth overall with a personal record of 20:15:9.
“The conference is much better, much more competitive this year than last,” head coach Vanhoy said. “I think we have a better team than we did last year, but just a couple things didn’t quite come together for us on the season, and we never really quite had a full team performance that I thought we were capable of on the women’s side.”
The Rebels will now look to the NCAA Cross Country Championship, which will possibly take place in March.
