Hampton, Tuttle Qualify for NCAA DII XC Championships

11.8.15

Men's 10K Results
Women's 6K Results

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The best of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference again rose to the occasion on a big stage, this time at the NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Midwest Regionals on Saturday.
 
Most G-MAC schools were able to participate against the GLVC and GLIAC conferences at the regional meet hosted once again by the University of Southern Indiana.
 
Cedarville’s Benjamin Tuttle and Trevecca Nazarene’s Caroline Hampton -- respective G-MAC men’s and women’s champions from the fall conference meet in Elkins -- are both headed to Joplin, Mo., at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships.
 
The top three individuals who were not part of a qualifying team automatically advanced to the championship finals. Also, individuals finishing in the top five that were not on a qualifying team also advanced.
 
Tuttle ripped through the 10K course in a time of 30:30.37 to win the entire men’s competition. He finished first overall with 215 total runners entered.
 
He was one of three individual qualifiers from the meet to nationally qualify, joining Indianapolis’ Alex Cushman and Bellarmine’s Chris Striegel.
 
Tuttle edged out Cushman by about a nine-second margin in the battle for first.
 
The top-25 runners also earned All-Midwest Region honors. Tuttle was joined on that short list by Trevecca Nazarene’s Logan Rodgers, who finished second only to his friendly rival at the G-MAC Championship.
 
Tuttle shattered the G-MAC’s all-time 10K record by about 30 seconds, bettering the 31:07.20 run by Matt Brooker in the 2013 NCAA Championship.
 
Cedarville (10th), Trevecca Nazarene (13th), Davis & Elkins (28th), Ohio Valley (29th), Alderson Broaddus (30th) and Kentucky Wesleyan (31st) all registered team scores in the field.
 
Hampton clocked in 15th out of 220 runners on the women’s side in 21:31.22.
 
The two-time G-MAC champ, 2014 conference freshman of the year and 2014 all-region pick is one of three women’s individual qualifiers.
 
She will be headed to nationals along with Sarah Campbell (Malone) and Flannery Musk (Bellarmine).
 
Joining Hampton from the G-MAC on the all-region team was Cedarville’s Carsyn Koch, who finished 25th overall.
 
Hampton was also close to shattering her own all-time G-MAC 6K record of 21:29.11 set ironically at last year’s DII Midwest Regional.

Cedarville (7th), Trevecca Nazarene (18th), Ohio Valley (23rd), Alderson Broaddus (24th) and Davis & Elkins (30th) all registered team scores in the field. Kentucky Wesleyan also competed with individual runners. 
 
Tuttle and Hampton will head out to Joplin, Mo., to run at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course on Saturday, Nov. 21.