Georgia traveled to Maryville, Tenn., on Halloween for the 2011 SEC Cross Country Championships, and the men’s squad came away with its highest finish since 2004.

KRISTIE KRUEGER

Both the men and women finished in the top-five at third and fourth, respectively.

In the women’s 6k race, defending individual champion Kristi Krueger led the charge for the Lady Bulldogs, but did not retain her title, finishing in sixth place at 20:40.45. But with a top-ten finish, Krueger was named to her second consecutive All-SEC First-Team.

“Nobody thinks twice about All-SEC First Team. Obviously, you want to repeat, but she did a great job in spite of not running a step last week.” head coach Jeff Pigg said.

In the men’s 8 kilometer race, Junior Matt Cleaver led the way for the Bulldogs finishing eight, adding another top-ten finish to his resume. Sophomore Brandon Lord rounded out the top ten, finishing just three seconds behind Cleaver. Brett Richardson made for three Bulldogs in the top 15 with a time of 24:49.31.

All of Georgia’s scorers broke the top 20 with sophomore Luke Baker and Junior Brian Detweiler finishing back-to-back at 17^th and 18^th. In addition to the scorers, the final two Bulldogs — seniors Nick Long and JP Hackney — still finished in the top 26.

“Our top seven all did a fabulous job. When you have all of your runners in the top 26, it really shows the depth our team has,” Pigg said.

Those were not the only accolades of the morning as Brendan Hoban earned SEC All-Freshman honors with a time of 25:37.

The Bulldogs scored a total of 68 points, just two points behind rival Florida. Defending champion and the pre-race favorite Arkansas retained its crown with 33 points.

“Getting beat by two points to Florida, well… it is close. It makes you think back to what you could have done. We’ll get another opportunity in two weeks and we are definitely looking forward to that,” Pigg said.

While the men posted their best finish in seven years, the Lady Dogs secured their best finish since 2006 with junior Ashley Shiver crossing the finish line next after Krueger with a time of 21:26.41 — good for 22nd place. The Lady Bulldogs scored 124 points on the day, finishing ahead of Ole Miss for the 4^th spot.

The Lady Bulldogs final three finishing scores came from freshman Anna Bowles (27^th-21:35.65), junior Leslie Boozer (34^th-21:49.22), and senior Abbie Robinson (38^th-21:54.46).

Vanderbilt scored 30 points as the top women’s team. Arkansas, and Florida finished second and third.

After a good showing at the SEC Championships, Georgia will head back to Harry Pritchett Running Park in Tuscaloosa, Ala., at the NCAA South Regional Championships on Nov. 12^th.

“Third and fourth [place] is solid. I like the direction we’re headed,” Pigg said. “We’ll go to regionals next week and see what we can get done down there.”