The Auburn men's and women's cross country team soared into the 2012 season with three consecutive wins at the Trojan Invite, the Auburn Invite and the Azalea City Classic, making them an undefeated team.
Kane Grimster, a sophomore on the men's team majoring in journalism, was named SEC Runner of the Week Tuesday, Sept. 11.
Grimster came in first place at the 6K Auburn Invitational, the team's only home meet of the year.
This was the second time Grimster individually won first place and the third time he had placed in the top 10 in his career.
Although this was the first race of the season for him, he was able to successfully compete at the meet and acquire the sixth-best time in the country.
At the Azalea City Classic on Saturday, Sept. 15, hosted by the University of South Alabama in Mobile, all of the men's runners finished in the top eight, and sophomores Niklas Buhner and Grimster finished in the top three.
Auburn came in first place at the Classic, beating South Alabama by 22 points, and four of the men broke personal records.
"The team is a lot stronger than last year's," Grimster said. "We graduated two seniors, so we have a lot of returning runners who have made large improvements from last year."
At the Classic, the women's team finished in the top 12. Lizzie Briasco, a junior in nutrition-dietetics, finished 12th.
"I feel really good about the team," Briasco said. Compared to last year, the team had a lot more depth between the freshmen and the returners with valuable experience, she said.
Briasco was confident to say overall she was pleased with the team dynamic and attitude this year.
"I think we're on the right road to being the most valuable team in the SEC," Briasco said. "This weekend will be the most competitive race so far. There are a lot of bignamed schools, so it'll be one of those races where we'll focus on personal records."
The team had its first loss at the 11th Annual Greater Louisville Classic hosted by the University of Louisville at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park Saturday, Sept. 29.
The men finished 13th and the women 26th.
"This was our first meet against national ranked teams," said head coach Mark Carroll.
Although they couldn't keep the undefeated streak alive, they still finished strongly, he said.
"We'll just have to move forward from here," Carroll said. "There will be more intense workouts as we head to SEC's and regionals."
Grimster is looking forward to competition of the SEC championship meet as well, then onto the regional meet with the goal of qualifying for nationals, he said.
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