And playing the spoiler, they did.
Alabama State placed four runners inside the top 20, and pulled away from Grambling State to win their seventh Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship in eight years by nine points over the Tigers, and 18 points better than Prairie View A&M who finished third.
"There was no pressure on us this year and that is what made this year's race fun," Alabama State head coach Ritchie Been said. "I knew we had a shot to run a great race and win, but we needed to execute. We told them to have fun, and we knew the other teams were going to be good. It was fun to watch the game plan come together, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to do it."We had to go out and execute, and run our race. Everyone stayed in their zone and performed up to their ability. The game plan that myself, and coach (Michael) Snapp were able to put together, to watch it run exactly how we needed it to run, couldn't have asked for a better performance. Everyone did exactly what they were asked to do, and it paid off."
Arion Span led the way for Alabama State, finishing second in her best race as a Lady Hornet Monday morning. The junior crossed the line in a time of 18:33.05, a personal best, and finished 14 seconds ahead of third place Naomi Kiprop of Grambling. The duo finished behind Scolasticah Kemei of Mississippi Valley State, who finished with a time of 17:18.83.
"Arion ran a lifetime best," Beene said. "If you look at what she has done this season, she has knocked a lot of time off those races. We talked to her and told her she couldn't control what the lead runner was going to, we told her to get into her zone and have fun."
Mariyah Archibald, running her first conference championship race, finished ninth for the Lady Hornets with a time of 19:31.39; followed by fellow freshman Vinnelle Grant in 12th with a time of 19:52.92. Hannah Mezidor rounded out the top 20 for Alabama State, finishing 16th with a time of 20:04.83.
Meanwhile, on the men's side, the Hornets finished seventh overall with a total of 157 points; finishing behind Texas Southern in the overall race.
"We didn't get the spot we wanted," Beene said of the men's race. "I am proud of the performance of Matthew Kibet in his first conference race, going out and running well enough to earn all-conference honors. He ran well, and is still learning. I can't wait to see what he does once he gets the training model down.
"We had some new guys that ran personal bests on the back end, but the middle is where we struggled at throughout the race. We were down a runner today, and we knew they was going to hurt us down the stretch. We will get better and we will prepare for indoors, we just weren't good enough today to compete with the top teams."
Kibet finished eighth overall, one of three freshmen in the top eight of the race, finishing with a time of 26:45.47 in the 8k race. Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson finished 29th in a time of 28:12.29; while teammate Kevin Smith finished 38th overall with a time of 29:32.50.
The Lady Hornets, and Kibet, will begin preparations for the NCAA Regional Meet – hosted by Florida State – that will be run November 9.
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ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS
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