Southeastern cross country will run into the 2022 season picked to finish eighth in the Great American Conference Preseason Poll released on Thursday afternoon.
The Savage Storm picked up 54 points in the poll to finish eighth, 12 points ahead of Southern Nazarene in ninth and just three-points back of Southwestern Oklahoma State in seventh place.
Oklahoma Baptist is the preseason favorite with eight first-place votes, while Arkansas Tech and Harding were tied for second, with ATU picking up three first-place nods and HU grabbing the final one.
East Central was picked fourth, followed by Ouachita Baptist and Southern Arkansas.
Henderson State was picked 10th, followed by Northwestern Oklahoma State with Arkansas-Monticello rounding out the poll.
SE returns five runners from last year's squad who competed, led by Megan Rose who was the team's top finisher at its final two meets. She posted a 19:36.8 as a best mark in the 5K and her 24:10.5 in the 6K was the team's best run at that distance.
The Storm also returns Madelynn Coffey, Bailey Pritchett, Amanda Rodriguez, and Rachel Wynn from last years squad, all of whom ran at the GAC Championship meet and the NCAA DII Regional meet.
Southeastern will open the 2022 season on Sept. 2 when it heads to Denton, Texas, for the Ken Garland Memorial run at North Texas.
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