When the dust had settled after the NCAA’s nine cross country regions finished their respective regional meets on Friday, the NCAA announced its qualifying teams for the 2015 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships the following day.
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The national championship meet on Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky, will provide the movie’s climax – the fate of the promising UCLA men’s team will be revealed. It marks the team’s best performance at nationals since 2012.
Second-year runner Khia Kurtenbach said, “Finding out that the men’s and women’s teams would both be going to nationals was a highlight of my season”.
The first runner to cross the finish line for Williams was Cole, following up her second-place win at New England Regionals last weekend with a 4th place finish. The duo will be racing at nationals for the third consecutive year as the men’s team received an at-large berth into the 32-team field in both 2013 and 2014.
Following today’s result, Tiernan finished in the top-20 in the championship race for the third-straight year as the junior harrier led a trio of Wildcats who earned individual berths into the Championship. Usually grouped within about 10 seconds of one another, today’s top four finishers for BYU were gapped at just over half a minute. At the halfway point, Tiernan and Oregon’s Edward Cheserek broke away from the pack and further pushed the pace as it became a two-man head-to-head race for the final 5000 meters. “I’ve never been excited to go to Wisconsin until now”.
“I felt so fresh during the (regional) race”, she said. “It was nerve racking waiting for the NCAA Committee to decide if Midd would get a bid to compete but I was really glad when we heard that we were selected”.
“I’m pleased with what we did with the schedule because each meet prepared us for this”, said Dunn. “And those girls don’t quite have the leg speed to get out and run that first (1,000 meters) in 3:03, 3:04”.
“And there’s always a few team that I don’t mention that has a great weekend, somebody that I overlook, that’s fired up”. “I’m really excited to see cause I feel like I haven’t been fully tested yet …” “Having her there is just such a source of strength”.
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BYU’s usual top runner, Natalie Shields-Connolly, lost her shoe half a mile into the 6-kilometer race and ended up finishing without it on a cold, unforgiving course with gravel and other rough terrain.
