Bulldog Roundup: Cross country runner finishes in top 130

Your daily briefing on what's going on with Mississippi State Athletics

Mississippi State Distance Runner Nelly Jemeli during the NCAA South Region Championships at John Hunt Cross Country Course in Huntsville, AL. | Mississippi State Athletics

Mississippi State had just one representative at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

Nelly Jemeli finished inside the top 130 in the 6k race as the first Bulldog to run in the race in almost a decade. She finished in 127th place with a time of 20-minutes, 5.9 seconds.

"This was a great season for Coach Erinn and our women's cross-country team this year!" said head coach Chris Woods. "We've been able to build a team that can compete with the best of the best in the NCAA. The way that Nelly and our women's XC team closed out this season gives us the foresight and motivation we need to have our entire team at the NCAA championships next season!"

Alabama individual racer Doris Lemngole took the national title, and NC State took the team title in the race. The race marked the end of a historic cross country season for State, the best in nearly a decade.

In the 2025 season, both program records for the 5k and 6k fell, with the top five fastest 6k runners in program history all on the roster this year. The team secured a fourth-place finish at the South Regionals, in addition to multiple team and individual wins throughout the season

Yesterday’s Results

• Cross Country: Mississippi State at NCAA Championships

Today’s Schedule

• No games scheduled.

Did You Notice?

• Former Mississippi State standout Jeff Brantley will be enshrined into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame next spring. The Florence native is one of eight new members selected into the hall of fame in his home state of Alabama joining Jason Campbell, John Copeland, Kim Evans, Evan Mathis, Ray Odums, Les Studeman and Tommy Tuberville. A banquet and induction ceremony will be held in Birmingham on May 9. Brantley, who was already inducted into the Mississippi State Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2011, was the ace on the Diamond Dawgs' famed 1985 College World Series team and owns the most career wins in SEC history with 45.

Daily Dose Of Mike Leach

When the Egyptians were building the pyramids or the Romans were building roads, or you had the westward push with the railroads, I don't think that the guys on the ground were spending a lot of time thinking, 'Hey, hundreds or thousands of years from now they will look back at the brick I have just laid down here and say that I changed the world!'

Mike Leach

We’ll Leave You With This

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