Missouri men race to fifth place at SEC Cross Country Championships

Nov 2, 2024 | Uncategorized

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Missouri senior Nicole Louw races at the SEC Cross Championships in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Friday, November 1, 2024. Louw shaved a minute off her 6k SEC Championship time. | Southeastern Conference

Drew Rogers and Rahel Broemmel earned Second Team All-SEC honors in the highest individual finishes for Missouri since 2021.

Seven Missouri men set 8k PBs as the Tigers took fifth at the SEC Cross Country Championships hosted by Texas A&M, Friday, November 1, 2024.

The No. 3 Arkansas Razorbacks won the team title for the fourth time in five years.

Drew Rogers paced the Tigers, finishing 11th overall 22:54.1, the program’s highest individual conference finish since 2021.

“Overall, it’s a big improvement from last year,” said Rogers, who earned All-SEC Second Team honors.

Last season, the Missouri men placed ninth as a team, and Rogers took 39th overall.

“We’ve known in the past that SECs (have) been a spot we’ve struggled mentally, and I think we did a really good job of preparing coming into this race compared to previous years,” Rogers said.

Coach Kyle Levermore said Drew Rogers’ training helped him “put together the confidence to go for it.”

And Rogers and his teammates went for it. Rogers, Blake Morris and Ryder James shaved a combined 57 points off their SEC results from 2023, helping the Tigers beat Tennessee by six points and race within five of taking Texas down.

Missouri’s pack attack pushed each other in pairs. The team strengthened its season-best average 8k time by over 45 seconds, finishing in 23:29.6, or a four-minute, 43-second average mile pace.

On the women’s side, Rahel Broemmel continued to define herself as a 6k threat.

Broemmel placed lucky No. 13 in 19:39.7, a massive 6k PB and the highest SEC finish by a Missouri woman since 2020.

PBs are often hard to compare across courses in cross country, but not this time. Broemmel raced over 70 SECONDS FASTER than last year when she competed on the same course for Arkansas State

“Obviously, Drew and Rahel are fantastic,” Levermore said.

“Fantastic” looked like being the only Missouri woman to break 20-minutes in four years.

Broemmel and Rogers both fought for positioning in the first few kilometers and then didn’t budge.

“They locked in right where they needed to be,” Levermore said.

Broemmel’s teammates Nicole Louw and Anneken Viljoen took second and third for the team, 61st and 70th overall, as the Tigers placed 13th of 16 teams.

Once again, Louw paced the middle pack as Missouri’s metronome.

The Tigers’ postseason continues at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship, Friday, November 15 in Peoria, Illinois.

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