The Southeast Missouri State Redhawks cross country men's and women's team were both picked to finish in the top four of the Ohio Valley Conference by head cross country coaches from the conference in a preseason vote.

The men were picked to finish third in the conference while the women were picked to finish fourth.

"It's just a heavy conference right now," Southeast coach Ryan Lane said. "Most of the teams in our conference are very good. I think to be picked that highly, it shows that the coaches respect our team and who we are as a program. Of course we always want to make sure that we can exceed expectations, so we are excited to get out there and compete and to be better than what we were selected."

The men's and women's team both finished in the top five of the OVC Championships last season, and senior Rebekah Lawson finished second overall in the women's race to help Southeast finis fourth in the championship.

"I have Rebekah plus two other senior girls that are going to be in my top four," Lane said. "So those seniors right now, with Rebekah leading them, we're expecting them to lead our team to have the best finish we've had in the last 10 years."

The seniors Lane referred to are Mary Dohogne and Gloria Westlake, whom Lawson said she looks up to as leaders of this team.

"I really don't feel like much of a leader myself," Lawson said. "I kind of really look up to a lot of my other teammates like Mary and Gloria, they are seniors as well and the captains on the team. We all work together as a team and push each other, but it is mainly through action. It's more of a team effort than an individual effort in the leadership role, especially with Gloria and Mary. They put a lot of work into motivating the team."

The men finished fifth last season in the OVC and were led by Craig Munie, who placed seventh in the men's 8k.

Eastern Kentucky, who won both the men's and women's meets last year in the OVC championship, was picked to finish first again as it returns senior Una Britton, who finished first in the women's 5k race and sophomores Ambrose Maritim and Ben Toroitich, who finished second and third in the men's 8k.

Neither the men's and women's cross country teams have ever won an OVC championship, but Lawson thinks they can do well this year in the conference championship.

"We have a lot of depth and we're training really hard," Lawson said. "I mean we've trained all through summer, which a lot of teams really don't really have hard practices during the summer. Our team has definitely gone the extra mile in doing that and getting in the mileage and doing the extra small stuff to help prevent getting injured and to just make us a little bit stronger."

Last season Southeast's women's team finished first overall in its first two meets as Lawson placed first overall in both. Lawson competed in all but two meets last season.

"This is my last year on cross country, and I'm just cherishing every moment that I have with my teammates," Lawson said. "It's going to be really good in making memories during the meets and just being with each other and motivating each other is what I enjoy the most."

The men's team finished first in only one of their meets, but they were in the top five in three meets, which were the SIUE XC Challenge, the Big River Early Bird and the Bradley Classic.

The Redhawks will start the season at the Gabby Reuveni Early Bird meet hosted by Washington University in St. Louis on Aug. 30.