Official NCAA Release
INDIANAPOLIS – By virtue of either a finish at the Midwest Regionals or the current season’s body of work, four programs from the Great Midwest Athletic Conference will be headed to the NCAA Cross Country Championships coming up in December.
The Hillsdale women and Walsh men each received auto-qualifying bids from their performance the NCAA Midwest Regional. Cedarville’s men and Walsh’s women were one of the at-large selections made by the committee published by the NCAA in a press release.
The individual at-large selection qualifying from the men’s side was Hillsdale junior Joseph Humes, who finished fifth overall at regionals.
The NCAA Cross Country Championships will be co-hosted by Clarion, Slippery Rock and SportsPITTSBURGH, in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Saturday, Dec. 1, at Schenley Park.
The men will run the 10K distance while the women will compete in a 6K race. The men’s race will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern, followed by the women’s race at 12:15 p.m. Eastern.
This is the second consecutive national championships appearance for the Hillsdale and Walsh women under respective head coaches Andrew Towne and Rob Mizicko. Both the Chargers and Cavaliers had All-Americans at the podium last year with Hannah McIntyre and Sarah Berger establishing themselves among the nation’s best.
While McIntyre graduated, Berger is enrolled as a graduate student-athlete at Grand Valley State and is a favorite to potentially win the women’s competition. Berger and the Lakers won regionals. She was the Great Midwest Female Athlete of the Year and Female Collegiate Achievement Award Winner for the 2017-18 academic year while at Walsh.
Cedarville’s men will be making its third appearance at nationals in seven years as charter members of the Great Midwest. This is the first time in league history that two programs will have qualified for nationals.
The Yellow Jackets also qualified for nationals in 2012 and 2013, where they finished in the top half of the field at 15th, each time.
The Walsh men are back in the national tournament field for the second consecutive year as seniors Jacob Kernell and Steven Kapes both have one of the league’s best top 10K marks clocked last year.
The Cavaliers women, paced by Great Midwest Runner of the Year Brianna Coy, have been nationally ranked all season and figured to be a lock for an at-large invitation. Andra Lehotay is also a returning runner with the national experience and a host of newcomers have contributed to the overall depth of the program.
Humes, a four-time men’s athlete of the week from the conference this season alone, holds the 8K and 5K overall records in Great Midwest history. He was the top overall finisher from the league at regionals this year.
Strangely enough, neither Great Midwest team champion (Malone men, Walsh women) was the top finisher at regionals, an indication of how difficult the snowy conditions were in Michigan as Hillsdale served as this year’s host.