Cross country squads ready for NCAA Southeast Regional meet

The Arizona men’s and women’s cross-country team will be traveling to Seattle, Washington to compete in the NCAA West Regional Friday, November 13. The women’s 6,000-meter race at Panorama Farms will fire at noon, while the men’s 10K is scheduled for 1 p.m. UVA will provide live results. On the entry list for the men’s squad are seniors Justin Ahalt, Parker Deuel and Eric Sivill; juniors, Robbie Farnham-Rose, Antibahs Kosgei, Evan Prizy, and Conner Thompson; and sophomores Andrew Bull and Garret Bull. The women’s team has entered seniors Katelyn Greenleaf, Meropi Panagiotou, and Rebecca Stover; juniors Allison Gregg and Hannah Waggoner; sophomores Caroline Barlow, Emily Edwards, Veronica Lyle, and Alison Ringle; and freshmen Jessica Gray, Rachael Reddy, and Kaitlin York. The Mid-Atlantic region is comprised of schools located in DE, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the Washington D.C. area.

To qualify for the National Championship Meet as a team, the Panthers must finish first or second to earn an automatic bid.

A top-10 finish is the goal Friday as the Central MI cross country teams partake in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional at the Wisconsin Thomas Zimmer Championship Course.

Marquette is coming off a solid showing at the BIG EAST Conference Championships back on October 31, that saw the men take fifth and the women finish sixth.

“The team has been set on nationals since before the beginning of the season”, said third-year runner Madeleine Horvath.

“Regionals is just one of those things where we want to go there, get qualified, place, and come off the meet in good shape and then get back here geared up for the NCAAs”, OR coach Robert Johnson said. The top two teams in each race will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships, while the remaining teams wait for the announcement of the at-large selections made by the NCAA Division I Cross Country Subcommittee. “The men didn’t have a great race at the ACCs, but we know this course very well”.

The stakes are much higher this go-round as the meet expands to a regional platform, but the Sooners are prepared to compete. “We’re in a good spot and healthy going into this competition”.

The fourth-ranked OR women are coming off a second-place finish at the Pac-12 meet.

On the women’s side, the Wildcats seek to improve from their performance at the Pac-12 Championships as well.

At last season’s Regional Championships, the Broncos finished in 15 place out of 30 teams giving them their highest finish since 2010.

“We expect him to be in the top four”, Ogilvie said. Tiernan has won all four of his races on the year and has now finished first in nine of his 16 collegiate cross country races. “She isn’t looking to steal a win, but how she can help us be the best team we can be”. Tretbar, the only all-regional runner in 2014 for the women, has been the lead runner for the Sooners in every race for the last two seasons.

“On the women’s side, the Great Lakes Region was definitely the most competitive region previous year as the national champion (Michigan State) came out of our region”, Nelson said.