Seven Big 12 cross country teams have earned berths in the 2015 NCAA National Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, including the Oklahoma State men and women, who swept the Midwest Regional.
Just two weeks removed from its first sweep at the Big 12 Championship, it was more of the same for the runners from OSU as they locked up their NCAA invites with dual first-place finishes by a combined 83-point margin.
The Texas men and women will join Oklahoma State at the championship, with both squads earning automatic bids with second-place finishes in the South Central Regional. It is the first time since 2012 that both the men and women from UT will head to the NCAA meet.
Along with OSU and UT, in the field as an automatic qualifier are the Iowa State women, who finished in second place at the Midwest Regional behind the Cowgirls. The Kansas women (Midwest Regional) and Oklahoma men (Midwest Regional) have also punched tickets to Louisville by virtue of at-large selections.
Iowa State’s bid earns the women a seventh-consecutive NCAA appearance, while the OU men qualify for the first time since 2012 and the KU women for the first time since 1994.
The Big 12 also had three individuals from non-qualifying schools selected to race in the NCAA meet: Evan Landes (Kansas, 9th, Midwest Regional) on the men’s side, along with Maggie Montoya (Baylor, 2nd, South Central Regional) and Millie Paladino (West Virginia, 11th, Mid-Atlantic Regional) for the women.
The Oklahoma State men’s victory in the Midwest Regional extended their regional win streak to five and gave the program its 10th win in 11 years. For the Cowgirls, the title gives them three overall and their first regional win since 2005.
The Cowboy’s placed five runners in the top 20 en route to victory, including Cerake Geberkidane who finished third in the 10K race with a time of 29:50.4. The Cowgirls also placed five runners in the top 20, including Natalie Baker who finished fourth in the 6K with a time of 20:21.2.
The conference placed 16 men and 21 women on All-Region Teams, including 11 from Oklahoma State (five men, six women). The six Cowgirls who made All-Region tied for the most in the country from one team on the women’s side.
The University of Louisville will host the NCAA championships, Saturday, November 21, at Tom Sawyer State Park located in Louisville, Kentucky. The women’s race will begin at 11 a.m. CT, followed by the men’s race at approximately noon CT.
A live webcast of the championships will be broadcast from 11 a.m. CT until the conclusion of the awards ceremony on NCAA.com.