STARKVILLE, Miss. - The Alabama men's cross country team competed at the SEC Championships today in Starkville, Miss. at the Mississippi State Cross Country Course. The squad dominated the field today and won their first conference title since 1973 tallying 32 points.

The Crimson Tide placed all five scoring runners in the top ten and were led by junior Tyson David who finished in second place covering the 8,000 meter course with a time 23:16.26. Junior Emmanuel Bor (5th) and senior Augustus Maiyo (6th) crossed the finish line in 23:31.26 and 23:31.95, respectively. Alabama's top five was rounded out by senior Abraham Kutingala (9th) and sophomore Andrew Kirwa (10th) turning in times of 23:43.25 and 23:53.05, respectively.

Freshman Zac Edwards finished with a time of 24:59.06 in 29th place. He was followed by freshman Stephen Payne (60th), freshman Nathan Corder (65th) and freshman Austin Duckworth (89th) turning in times of 25:52.59, 26:03.87 and 27:37.17, respectively.

Alabama's top five all garnered All-SEC honors. Edwards was named to the All-SEC Freshman team. He was the fourth freshman to cross the line.

There were 96 competitors in the race. Girma Mesecho of Auburn won the individual title with a time of 23:11.26.

"I'm really proud of the way the guys ran as a group," cross country coach Joe Walker said. "We told all of them `don't get selfish and don't let your ego come above your team' and to me it really looked like they put the team first and I'm just really, really proud of them."

In team scoring, Alabama won the title with 32 points. Auburn was the closest team in second by putting up 62 points. Arkansas (75), Florida (107) and Tennessee (130) rounded out the top five spots, respectively. The rest of the teams in their respective orders were Mississippi State (186), Kentucky (192), Georgia (227), Mississippi (245), LSU (257) and Vanderbilt (292).

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