Seattle Prep grad Joe Hardy of Wisconsin gets individual qualifying spot for NCAA XC champs...

In our post Saturday announcing the qualifiers to Saturday’s NCAA cross country championships, we neglected to mention Seattle Prep graduate Joe Hardy (above/photo courtesy Wisconsin Athletics), who was sixth for the University of Wisconsin at the Great Lakes regional meet Friday in Terre Haute, Indiana.

At the Great Lakes regional, Michigan State (68) and Michigan (79) earned the two automatic qualifiers to the NCAA championship meet in Louisville, while Wisconsin (84) was third.  

The NCAA cross country committee bypassed the Badgers when it came time to pick the 13 at-large teams based on their performance at their own Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational last month, where the #25 Badgers finished 25th, led by Hardy’s 25th place finish.

Hardy was second in the Big 10 championships two weeks ago, as the Badgers were third behind Michigan and Michigan State.

Hardy joins several other notable runners from Washington in the NCAA championship meet competing for other schools around the country including Tanner Anderson of Spokane (Oregon), Miler Haller of Edmonds (Boise State), Logan Orndorf of Duvall (Portland) and Nick Hauger of Spokane (Portland).

The University of Washington men’s team earned an automatic qualifier on the basis of its second place finish at the West regionals, while the Husky women’s team, the WSU men’s team, and the Cougars’ Valley Korir were announced Saturday as at-large qualifiers and in Korir’s case, an individual qualifier.

NOTE:  The University of Wisconsin and the NCAA contributed to this report.