Angela Homan Wins Second SEC Cross Country Title
Women Results
October 30, 2004
Angela Homan (Photo courtesy of Clarence Trice) |
Fayetteville, Ark. -- Junior Angela Homan extended her winning streak to four this season as she captured her second consecutive SEC Cross Country title on a chilly Saturday morning in Fayetteville, Ark.
Homan, a native of Delphos, Ohio, won the meet in a commanding time of 20:25.92, bettering her 6K best by two seconds and finishing more than 20 seconds ahead of second place finisher Jill Steffens of Georgia. In 2003 Homan became the first Auburn women to win an SEC title in the 21 years of the championship competition. She becomes one of four women in SEC history to win back-to-back titles.
"I felt pretty comfortable during the race," Homan said. "I was hoping some girl would come up there and challenge me a little bit. This was a beautiful course and it was a beautiful day. My coach prepared my team and myself very well. My legs were under me and I was ready to run well."
"Defending a title would be a lot of pressure on anybody and I knew that there's always going to be a target on your back from winning the previous year, so I used that to my advantage. It was a lot of pressure but I am used to that this year and it's going to get tougher and tougher as the season goes on. I've been extremely blessed."
The Tigers women's team improved one spot from their 2003 performance at the championships as they finished fifth with 168 points. Tennessee won the team title with 55 points, followed by Arkansas and Georgia.
"I am very pleased with our performance on the women's side," head cross country coach Chris Fox said. "Angela has been running strong all season and I very happy to see her set a new personal best in the 6K today. She won Auburn's first women's title last season and now she established herself as one of the best cross country athletes Auburn has ever had. I will be exciting to see how she runs at regionals and nationals."
Kylee Swanson turned in an impressive performance as she came in 12th with a time of 21:25.83. With her top finish she earned All-SEC honors. Dawn Morgan (35th, 22:23.70), Becca Bell (57th, 23:12.22) and Danielle Keplinger (63rd, 23:21.76) rounded out the top five for Auburn.
"Kylee had a great race today and I am proud to see her do so well in her final year. We had three freshmen running for us with Becca, Megan and Jessica, so it was good for them to get experience at this level. We improved from last season and that is all I can ask for."
Also competing on the women's side were newcomers Megan Karl (72nd) and Jessica Smith (t-78th) and junior Emily Tanner (75th).
The women will run again on Nov. 13 at the NCAA South Regional in Tuscaloosa where the top two teams automatically advance to the championships on Nov. 22 in Indiana.
For complete results from the SEC Championships, please visit http://www.hogwired.com