Mixed results in cross country

Jackie Areson led the way and the Tennessee Lady Vols followed Saturday.

Areson ran to a third-place finish and all-conference accolades in the SEC Championships on the soggy Ole Miss Golf Course in Oxford, Miss.

She set the pace for UT, which finished second behind Florida with a team score of 80.

"It's been coming all year,'' Lady Vols coach J.J. Clark said. "Each race, we've gotten better and better. It was just a matter of them continuing to move forward, and they all did that with big efforts today."

In the men's SEC race, Tennessee finished sixth with 142 points.

Areson covered the 6,000-meter course in 21 minutes, 12.13 seconds, trailing only Florida's Rebecca Lowe (20:57.34) and Charlotte Browning (21:02.48). They were two of five Gators to finish in the top 10 as Florida finished with 24 points.

"Jackie Areson dug in and really ran tough against a highly ranked team,'' Clark said. "She really stuck it and gave her whole heart today. It was a great effort by her to take third."

Areson's finish matched former Lady Vol Sarah Bowman finishing third last season.

Along with Areson, Lady Vols Brittany Sheffey and Katie Van Horn earned All-SEC second-team honors. Sheffey matched her 12th-place finish of a year ago with a 21:49.62. Van Horn, who missed last season with injuries after being an All-SEC runner in 2007, finished 13th in 21:50.75.

Chanelle Price and Phoebe Wright didn't earn any conference recognition but were valuable to UT's finish. The 800-meter runners came through at the longer distance with Price finishing 18th in her first SEC meet (22:14.42) while Wright was 34th (22:39.57).

"The middle pack was very tight, running 12, 13 and 18 and then Phoebe brought it home,'' Clark said. "I'm very proud of our effort. We came in here ranked third in the conference and scratched out a hard-earned second-place finish."

On the men's side, the Tennessee highlights were Michael Spooner earning All-SEC honors and Leoule Degfae making the all-freshman team.

Otherwise, the team finish wasn't cause for celebration.

"We had a disappointing day,'' Tennessee coach George Watts said. "I felt like we were good enough to finish in the top four, but with the exception of Michael Spooner, we ran subpar races."

Spooner ran with the lead group and was in third place at one point along the 8,000-meter course in Oxford. He eventually finished in 25:07.60.

Degfae finished 33rd in 26:06.12. UT's Peter Sigilai was 24th in 25:44.72.

"We will regroup and make every effort to improve our performance in our next meet at the regional,'' Watts said.

Both the Lady Vols and Vols will run in the NCAA South Regional Nov. 14 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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