Mountaineers Picked First in Males’s and Ladies’s Sun Belt Cross Country Coaches Polls

NEW ORLEANS – The App State males’s and ladies’s cross nation groups had been chosen first of their respective Sun Belt Cross Country Preseason Coaches Polls, the league introduced on Friday. Both the boys’s and ladies’s groups shall be defending their 2024 Sun Belt titles this fall.

On the prowl for his or her third consecutive group title, the boys’s squad is projected to complete first, incomes 79 votes and 7 first-place votes. The males had been additionally picked first within the 2024 SBC Preseason Coaches Poll. The girls’s group earned 165 factors and 10 first-place votes this 12 months, and want to safe back-to-back group titles. 

 

“I’m looking forward to the season beginning,” mentioned males’s distance coach Brad Herbster. “I feel like we have a strong squad and one that can represent App State proudly.” 

 

The App State males return six from their championship squad this season, together with front-runner Ethan Lipham. Lipham set tempo for the Mountaineers on the 2024 SBC Championships, ending fourth with an 8K time of 24:40.6. Redshirt senior Chase Burrell, and sophomores Henry Stark and Thomas Wlazlowski, return with Lipham for the 2025 season. Burrell, Stark and Wlazlowski completed among the many high 10 eventually 12 months’s championships, incomes all-conference accolades. Additionally, Stark was named the SBC Men’s Cross Country Freshman of the Year as the primary freshman to cross the end line. Last fall, the Mountaineers secured their second consecutive title with 30 factors, two factors greater than their 2023 rating of 28. Herbster additionally earned his second Sun Belt Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year honor in as a few years. 

 

“We have a young team with an exceptional incoming class adding to the experience of the returning roster,” mentioned girls’s distance coach Annie Richards. “The work we put in between now and the championship season is our focus, and the team is confident, willing to work hard and not taking anything for granted.”

 

The Mountaineer girls clinched their first group title since 2018 final 12 months with a rating of 45, which was 61 factors lower than runner-up Arkansas State, who scored 106 factors. Returning from final season’s championship squad for the 2025 season are sophomore Breanna Budzinski and junior Rhys Ammon. Budzinski, who clocked a 5K time of 18:16.15 to complete sixteenth total, earned SBC Women’s Cross Country Freshman of the Year honors for her efficiency. Ammon stopped the clock at 18:21.56 to spherical out the highest 20. Richards additionally collected her first Sun Belt Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year honor final fall. 

 

App State will host two meets on the Don Kennedy Trails at State Farm in Boone this 12 months. The Black and Gold will open the 2025 marketing campaign with the Covered Bridge Open on Aug. 28. The girls’s 5K is slated for 9:15 a.m. with the boys’s 8K to observe at 9:45 p.m. On Oct. 3, the Mountaineers will host the Firetower Project Run.

 

The Sun Belt Cross Country Championships are slated for Oct. 31 in Foley, Ala. 

 

2025 Sun Belt Conference Men’s Cross Country Preseason Coaches Poll

1. App State (7) – 79

2. Arkansas State (2) – 72

3. Texas State – 54

4. South Alabama – 53

5. Marshall – 40

6. Louisiana – 36

7. ULM – 32

8. Coastal Carolina – 26

9. Troy – 13

 

2025 Sun Belt Conference Women’s Cross Country Preseason Coaches Poll

1. App State (10) – 165

2. Arkansas State (2) – 147

3. Marshall – 139

4. Texas State – 120

5. Louisiana – 113

6. Coastal Carolina – 107

7. James Madison – 94

8. Southern Miss (1) – 87

9. South Alabama – 68

10. Troy – 50

11. ULM – 43

12. Georgia Southern – 35

13. Georgia State – 15