UKXC to Begin Postseason at SEC Championships Friday

ATHENS, Ga. – Kentucky will race for the Southeastern Conference Championships in cross country on Friday at the University of Georgia Golf Course.
 
The men’s 8K race is scheduled for a 10 a.m. ET start, while the women’s 6K race will begin at 11 a.m.
 
A one-hour SEC Cross Country Championships highlight show will air Sunday, Nov. 5 at noon ET on the SEC Network. Live results will be available at SECSports.com and GeorgiaDogs.com.
 
An awards ceremony will follow the race. Admission to the 2017 SEC Cross Championships is free and open to the public, and spectator parking is available at the Jack Turner Complex parking lot, and there will be a shuttle to the golf course. This will mark the fourth time that Georgia will serve as host to the SEC Cross Country Championships and first since 2003.
 
The Kentucky men’s team placed third in the SEC team competition last year, earning their best conference finish since taking the same place in 1991 and 1992.
 
Jacob Thomson was seventh to finish as the top UK men’s team placer last season at SECs in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
 
Katy Kunc claimed bronze at the SEC Cross Country Championships a year ago. She led Kentucky to a seventh-place finish with 180 points, a significant improvement from 12th-place in 2015.
 
Five SEC cross country teams are ranked among the nation’s top-30 in the latest U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association NCAA Division I Cross Country National Coaches Poll. The Ole Miss men are ranked 16th, while Arkansas is No. 27. The Alabama men are listed among those receiving votes. The Arkansas women are ranked sixth, while Georgia is No. 16 and Ole Miss is No. 22. Mississippi State is included among the women’s teams receiving votes.
 
Arkansas is the defending SEC cross country champion on both the men’s and women’s sides. The Razorback men have won the last seven SEC crows and 24 in the last 26 years. The Razorback women have won four consecutive SEC titles.
 
Arkansas’ Alex George and Missouri’s Karissa Schweizer return as the defending men’s and women’s champions. An Arkansas runner has won the men’s and women’s titles in three of the last four years.
 
Earlier this season, Georgia hosted a cross country meet at the UGA Golf Course for the first time since 2007.
 

Cross country refresher
Points are scored in cross country corresponding to finishing place. The place of each of the top five finishers on each team are added up and the team with the lowest total wins. Placers outside a team’s top five cannot score so finishers on other teams that might finish behind a team’s No. 6 or No. 7 finisher can get a point total fewer than their overall place in the race.

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