Cross Country Prepares For Regionals

Nov. 11, 1999

Sooners Will Try To Rebound At Regionals
The Oklahoma men's and women's cross country teams will be in action Saturday at the Midwest Region Championships in Champaign, Ill. The Sooners will be vying for a spot at the NCAA Championships in Bloomington, Ind.

The meet will be held at the University of Illinois Blue Golf Course. There are a total of 31 schools participating in the regional, with 28 running in the men's race and 29 in the women's race. The men's 10K race is scheduled for 11 a.m., followed by the women's 5K race at noon.

In order to qualify for the NCAA Championships, a team must place first or second. An individual athlete may also earn a spot by being one of the top two finishers that is not a member of the first or second-place teams.

The team that finishes in third may be selected as a wild card team by posting a score that is better than a second-place team at a different regional.

The Big 12 Conference will also be represented in the region by Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma State. Other schools competing include Iowa, Loyola, Minnesota, Northwestern, Oral Roberts, Saint Louis, Southwest Missouri State, Tulsa and Wichita State.

"I hope regionals is an opportunity for us to redeem our season after our showing at the Big 12 Championships. If we go out and perform well, there is an outside shot that we could qualify for nationals," said Head Coach Todd Maycumber.

"More than anything, I just want our team to regain its competitive level that it showed earlier in the season," said Maycumber.

Sooners Fall Short At Big 12 Championships
The Sooners were in action on Oct. 30 at the Big 12 Conference Championships in College Station, Texas.

Both teams failed to improve their standings from a year ago as the women's squad placed 11th with 294 points and the men's team finished 12th with 320 points.

"I was disappointed in our overall competitive level," said Maycumber. "We didn't establish ourselves in the top half of the race like we needed to and we suffered because of that."

Sarah Harvey paced the women's team with a 5K time of 18:28, placing her 47th overall. It marked the second straight race that Harvey led the women's squad.

Leading the men's team for the fifth straight meet was sophomore Jimmy Martinez, who finished 43rd with an 8K time of 26:15.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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