Mansfield graduate and now Southeastern Oklahoma State freshman, Megan Rose, continues producing positive marks for her cross country team. At the Chile Pepper Festival on September 22, the rookie college runner once again ran a solid time.
At the women’s 5K race that included SEC power and festival host Arkansas, Rose posted a time of 20:47. That landed her into 230th place among 425 total runners.
Rose admitted that she should have finished higher but the mud from the rained soaked course pulled her shoe off. It was in fact the shoe with her chip timing device that came off.
Rose was forced to go back and get her shoe. She carried the chip in her hand to get scored by the end. Before that end, Rose kicked off her other shoe as well making the going even more treacherous.
Despite the conditions Rose ran nearly 46 seconds faster than her debut race at North Texas State a week earlier. She also held her own against other local runners that ran for different colleges around the area.
Kennedy Timmerman, who attended Ozark High School, ran a 19:53 for UCA. Morgan Fagan of Acorn and now UAFS ran 21:27. Faith Hill also of Acorn measured in at 21:35 for UA Rich Mountain.
Rose and her Southeastern teammates will travel to Lawrence, Kansas for another meet on September 29.
So far in both meets this season the Mansfield native has been among the scoring five for her Savage Storm team.