Cross Country Set to Host NCAA Midwest Regional Championships

COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri Cross Country will run at the 2022 NCAA Midwest Regional Championships at Gans Creek Cross Country Course Friday, Nov. 11. The event will be streamed live on YouTube.

The women’s 6k race will kick off the event at 11 a.m., while the men’s 10k will follow at noon.

The regional meet comes on the heels of the Southeastern Conference Championships on Friday, Oct. 28. Led by senior Marquette Hanson and sophomore Isabelle Christiansen, the Tigers finished in eighth and 11th for the men’s and women’s races, respectively. 

Hanson set a personal-best time of 23:43.19 at the race in Oxford, Miss. to take 18th place. Christiansen was the first Tiger to cross the line for the women with a time of 20:32.61 to finish 23rd.

Freshman Drew Rogers also earned All-SEC Freshman Team honors for his stalwart first season with the Tigers. Rogers earned a pair of top-50 finishes, including a 22nd-place result and a personal best in the 8k race at the Gans Creek Classic.

The men’s team is seeking to qualify for its first team berth to the NCAA Cross Country Championships since 2000, while the women hope to enter for the first time since 2016.

At the meet, 36 teams will compete for the chance to send its runners to the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Nov. 19 in Stillwater, Okla. Friday’s meet is one of nine qualifiers across the country, and the top two teams in each regional automatically qualify for the championships. Teams can also qualify as one of the 13 at-large teams chosen by the NCAA DI Cross Country Subcommittee based on performances at regionals.

Individual runners can also qualify for the national championships separately from their teams. The first four finishers who do not belong to an automatic qualifier or at-large team automatically advance to the championships, so long as they finish in the top 25 in their region. Two runners are also selected at-large to compete in the championships as the highest placing individuals at a regional who weren’t automatic qualifiers.

The event is the first NCAA regional hosted at Gans Creek Cross Country Course and is the largest meet the course has hosted in its three-year history. However, it is not the first major competition that Gans Creek has hosted, as the 2021 SEC Championships were run on the course.

Tickets for the race are on sale now.

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