Alabama
SEC Championships
Alabama Cross Country Runs into Championship Season with SEC Meet Friday in Oxford
10/27/2022 4:37:00 PM | Track & Field, Cross Country
The SEC Championships get underway Friday at 10 a.m. with the 6-kilometer women’s race, while the men go off over the 8k course at 10:50 a.m., at the Ole Miss Golf Course in Oxford, Miss.
OXFORD, Miss. – The Alabama men's and women's cross country teams will run for gold Friday morning at the 2022 Southeastern Conference Championships at the Ole Miss Golf Course in Oxford, Miss. The meet will be televised live on the SEC Network and will be streamed on SECNetwork+.
The SEC Championships get underway at 10 a.m. with the 6-kilometer women's race, while the men go off over the 8k course at 10:50 a.m.
The conditions on Friday are slated to be sunny and mild, with a dry course, in stark contrast to last season's SEC Championships, which featured frigid and rainy conditions and a soggy run.
Alabama returns the defending men's and women's champions in Eliud Kipsang and Mercy Chelangat, who were also the SEC Runners of the Year in 2021. The men also return 2021 SEC Freshman of the Year Victor Kiprop.
In addition to Chelangat, who is also the 2020 NCAA Cross Country Champion and the 2021 runner-up, Alabama's women are led by All-Americans Amaris Tyynismaa and Flomena Asekol, along with three-time SEC Freshman of the Week Hilda Olemomoi.
The men are led by Kiprop, who has one all three of his races to this point in the season and has been SEC Runner of the Week three times, along with All-Americans Kipsang and Hillary Cheruiyot.
Alabama Head Coach Dan Waters Said
"We've put in the work, we have a good plan and now it's time to go out there on Friday and race. This is the SEC, so you know it's going to be a tough race. No one is going to give you anything in this league."
The Crimson Tide in the National Rankings
- The Alabama women are ranked No. 7 in the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) poll, No. 3 by the Woods Report and No. 4 by FloTrack and the Stride Report
- The Tide men are No. 22 in the USTFCCCA rankings, No. 12 by FloTrack, No. 13 by the Wood Report and No. 15 by the Stride Report
- Four SEC teams enter the SEC Championships listed among the nation's top-25 teams per the coaches poll
- In the women's rankings, Alabama is ranked No. 7, while Arkansas is No. 21
- On the men's side, Tennessee is No. 17 and Alabama is No. 22
Alabama at the 2021 SEC Championships
- Alabama's women were third with 91 points at the 2021 SEC Championships which were held in Columbia, Mo., while the men were fourth with 132 points
- Alabama tallied four First Team All-SEC honors, two second-team nods and three Freshman All-SEC certificates, totaling a league-best nine accolades in 2021
- The Tide's individual 2021 champions, Mercy Chelangat in a repeat win in the women's race, and Eliud Kipsang, both earned First Team All-SEC honors
- Flomena Asekol also earned first-team recognition for the women, while Victor Kiprop was first team for the men
- Amaris Tyynismaa and Esther Gitahi both earned second-team accolades following the women's race
- The Crimson Tide also made up nearly half of the men's Freshman All-SEC squad with three , including Kiprop, Hillary Cheruiyot and Gavin Saacke
Alabama at the SEC Championships
- Alabama's women won back-to-back SEC team titles in 1986 and 1987Â
- The Crimson Tide women have finished up runners-up an additional seven times, with the last coming in 2020
- The Alabama women have won six individual SEC titles, with Mercy Chelangat winning the last two (2020 and 2021)
- The Alabama men have won three SEC titles (1973, 2008 and 2009) and have been runner-up 19 times, with the latest coming in 2019
- The UA men have won 12 individual titles, including four since 2015, with Eliud Kipsang winning the latest in 2021
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Players Mentioned
