As they have done in every meet this season, Chris Bodary and Brittany Sheffey led the charge for Tennessee. Their efforts enabled the Big Orange men to place fifth and the women seventh Monday morning at the SEC Cross Country Championships at Lambert Acres Golf Club.
The Vols, picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches poll, matched that prediction by tallying 169 points to tie with Alabama. Arkansas, led by individual champion Eric Fernandez (24:10.60), took the men’s crown with 33 points, followed by Florida (66), Georgia (68) and Kentucky (126).
The Lady Vols, meanwhile, came in expected to place ninth by the coaches. Bouncing back from last year’s disappointing 12th-place outcome, UT managed a seventh-place effort with 184 points. Vanderbilt captured the women’s trophy with 30, followed by Arkansas (61) and Florida (62) in the top three. Kristen Gillespie of Arkansas was the individual winner in a course-record 20:19.84.
The Tennessee men, who lost three of their top six finishers from the 2010 SEC meet and underwent a coaching change in the offseason, managed to avoid a dropoff despite counting the scores of two freshmen and a sophomore at this meet after losing Michael Spooner (11th), Chris Rapp (26th) and Steve Fassino (44th) from a year ago.
Instead of playing it safe, Bodary went for a big finish in his final SEC meet by running with the leaders and hoping to hold on at the end on his home course. Over the latter stages of the race, however, he was simply unable to keep up that pace and reported in with a 28th-place finish. The senior navigated the 8000-meter men’s layout in 25:07.40 against a field of 96 runners, setting the tone for his teammates for the fifth time this season.
Sophomore Jake Rainey and freshman Austin Whitelaw weren’t far behind Bodary, crossing the line 30th in 25:12.25 and 32nd (31st scorer) in 25:16.11, respectively. Rainey improved four places from his SEC All-Freshman effort of 2010, while Whitelaw earned a spot on this year’s all-rookie squad with his performance as one of the top seven newcomers.
Senior Tom Gilmartin ran fourth for Tennessee, placing 34th (33rd scorer) in 25:21.32, while freshman Jeremy Dickie was the fifth man in 52nd place (47th) at 25:53.63.  Rainey, Gilmartin and Dickie all had personal-record marks for 8K.
For the Lady Vols, Sheffey became only the ninth UT woman to earn All-SEC acclaim three times in a career.  She made the second team once again, finishing 12th out of 104 by covering the 6000-meter course in 21:00.63 while running with lead group for much of the race. She also finished 12th in 2008 and 2009.
Sophomore Amber Zimmerman, 42nd a year ago, was UT’s No. 2 finisher and claimed 26th overall in 21:34.13, while Chanelle Price checked in 43rd (41st) in 22:02.84 after taking 72nd in 2010.
Freshman walk-on Kacey Nobert, competing for only the second time this season, filled the No. 4 scoring slot. She did so by clocking a 22:17.45 readout to wind up 53rd (49th). Freshman Amirah Johnson was in the scoring five for the fifth straight meet, placing 62nd in 22:32.57. Both runners recorded career-best times for 6K.
The Vols and Lady Vols are off next weekend before resuming competition on Nov. 12 at the NCAA South Regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala.        

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