The SMU cross country team repeats as Conference USA champions after taking first at the conference tournament in Houston last weekend. Head coach Cathy Casey won C-USA Head Coach of the Year award for the second time. Photo courtesy SMU Athletics

The SMU cross country team is the champion of Conference USA for the second straight year after successfully defending their title at the conference tournament in Houston last weekend.

As additional icing on the cake, head coach Cathy Casey earned C-USA Coach of the Year honors, for the second time. However, she gives all the credit to her girls.

“It’s really the outstanding effort of the team,” Casey said. “Seeing them elevate their performances is really meaningful to me: How much work they put in and the results are pretty cool.”

The Mustangs faced stiff competition from an unlikely competitor: the University of Texas at El Paso, which finished second with 40 points, compared to SMU, who had 28 points.

Last year, the Miners finished in seventh-place, marking a significant improvement for UTEP. The Miners also had the individual medalist in Risper Kimaiyo and had three runners finish in the top-10.

“They were an outstanding team,” said Dave Wollman, director of track and field/cross country. “Winning took a great performance from every single person. They had a great recruiting year. They brought in some really top talent and I think they were favored going into the meet. So it was nice to surprise them with the level of talent that we had.”

Junior Silje Fjortoft finished second overall with a time of 18:01.6, just 15 seconds behind first-place Kimaiyo. Along with Fjortoft, four other Mustangs also finished in the top 10, three of whom were freshmen.

“In cross country, every body counts,” Wollman said. “There’s five runners and all of them count towards the score. If we would have not had any of the top five, we wouldn’t have beaten El Paso.”

Freshmen Sara Sjokvist and Veronika Blom took third and fourth respectively behind Fjortoft. Sjokvist, who finished first at the Ken Garland Invitational at the University of North Texas earlier in the season, ended up with a time of 18:11.8, finishing five seconds ahead of her fellow freshman.

Sophomore Kristine Eikrem-Engeset finished ninth with a time of 18:29.1, which was seven seconds ahead of freshman Mary Alenbratt, who was the last Mustang to finish in the top 10. Alenbratt rounded out the top five Mustangs, placing 10th with a final time of 18:38.4.

Although the overall collegiate experience within the team was low, neither Wollman nor Casey was particularly worried. To them, the biggest question was not whether the new members could compete, but rather how long it would take them to elevate their game.

“We knew the talent level we were getting in,” Wollman said. “We just didn’t know how quick the adaptation would be. And, I would say, given the fact that everybody got along so well together and there was good team chemistry, that coach Casey was able to get more things accomplished than what we would have normally done with a group of young of kids.”

Surprisingly, both of the coaches believe that the team’s greatest strength was in their team chemistry, despite the fact that there were so many newcomers to the team.

“Believe it or not, but I think it was team chemistry and the fact that every single person on this team was passionate about running,” Wollman said. “It wasn’t a chore, the practice, it was what they loved to do.”

Added Casey, “It was their communication and their ability to work hard: This is a hard working group. They’re very self motivated and they love to run. I think that each of them will fill in for one another; if one of them has an off day, there’s two others that will come in and take over.”

Now, the girls are readying up for the NCAA South Central regionals and the NCAA championships.

“Only two of the girls have ever been to the national championships before,” Wollman said. “So, it’s a new course and most of them have never been on it before. I think the idea is to go and qualify, get the experience and try to come out ready.”

Whatever doubts or anxiety the girls had about running in a major competition are gone now with their experience in the C-USA tournament. Now, they are ready to race for the top.

“Without nerve and adrenaline, you don’t get performance,” Wollman said. “So, of course they’ll be nervous, but they were at conference, too. And they have that innate ability to take that nerve and take that energy and adrenaline and turn it into something positive,” Wollman said.

“I honestly think this is the best team we’ve ever had at SMU.”