NCAA confirms D1 nationals spots for WSU women, UW men, plus individuals...
 |
| Solomon Kipchoge (800) and Evans Kurui (801) of Washington State went 1-2 at the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento (Paul Merca photo) |
INDIANAPOLIS--The NCAA announced the field for next Saturday's NCAA Division I cross country championships in Terre Haute, Indiana Saturday afternoon, following the conclusion of Friday's nine regional championships.
Both the Washington State women and the Washington men earned automatic qualifying spots for the national championships with their second place finish in Friday's West Regionals in Sacramento.
The Cougars will make their fourth team appearance at the NCAA championships, and second straight after finishing 27th last year.
The Washington women, who came into Friday's race ranked number 26 in the country and number three in the West Region, saw their chances for a twentieth straight appearance and 30th in the last 32 years go up in smoke after finishing fifth in the regional meet.
Behind West champ Oregon and Washington State, the Huskies finished behind two unranked teams in Boise State and Stanford, which proved to be the difference in getting one of the fourteen at-large berths. As a result, no other teams from the West region were selected into the national championships.
It didn't help matters that two of their top runners sustained non running injuries in the days before the regionals, which, given the youth of the team, left little room for error.
On the men's side, unranked Washington ran their best performance this season in finishing second behind Oregon, scoring 110 points to winner Oregon's 51.
The Huskies bounced back from two sub par races in Wisconsin at the Nuttycombe Invitational and at the B1G Ten Championships.
Behind the Huskies, three other teams earned at-large berths in next week's championships led by third place and 19th ranked Stanford, unranked Portland, and number 27 Arizona.
While Portland, the West Coast Conference champions, didn't have an outstanding regular season, the fact that they beat Arizona, and had wins during the regular season against several teams who were automatic qualifiers in the other regional meets, and ranked teams factored into their selection.
The Pilots have one Washington athlete on their team in Boden Alderson. Alderson finished 52nd in the regionals, running 30:25.
Washington State, which finished ninth, will advance both West Regional champ Solomon Kipchoge and runner-up Evans Kurui to the national championships as individual competitors.
Kipchoge was third last year, while Kurui finished 17th to earn All-America honors.
INDIVIDUALS...
Besides Portland's Alderson, and the Cougar duo of Kipchoge and Kurui, several notables with Washington ties will compete at the NCAA championships as part of a team.
Iowa State's Rosemary Longisa, who was a cross country All-American at Washington State last year, will be one of the frontrunners for the Cyclones. Longisa finished third at the Midwest regional meet, as Iowa State won the meet with 72 points.
Ballard HS grad Cassidy Armstrong, competing for Duke, finished 25th in the Southeast regional meet as the Blue Devils' second runner. Duke qualified for the national championships by finishing sixth at regionals, as the Southeast region put five of fourteen possible at large teams through to nationals.
NCAA cross country fans not in attendance can catch all the action live on ESPNU and the ESPN App beginning at 7 a.m. Pacific time on Saturday, November 21st.
NOTE: The NCAA, USTFCCCA, and the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Washington State, contributed to this report.
paulmerca.blogspot.com may receive a commission for any purchases made from links clicked. Please support this site and our sponsors by clicking on the links. You can also support the site by clicking the yellow "Buy Me A Coffee" link below or the blue icon on the lower right hand side.
Comments