Cross Country to Compete in NCAA Regionals

Nov. 12, 2009

NORMAN, Okla. - The University of Oklahoma will send ten runners from the men's and women's cross country teams to Springfield, Mo., this Saturday, Nov. 14, to compete in the 2009 NCAA Midwest Regional hosted by Missouri State University.

The Oklahoma men enter the meet ranked second in the Midwest Region. Both the men's and women's races will be held at Missouri State's Cross Country Facility at Springfield Underground. The men's 10,000 meter race will start at 12 p.m. CST, with the women's 6,000 meter race following at 1:15 p.m. The top two teams from each division will automatically qualify for the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships.

“I feel that this weekend is the next opportunity for our program to take an important step to the national level,” said University of Oklahoma head coach Martin Smith. “All the teams want to be an automatic qualifier, which is the top two. Our approach this weekend is not going to be any different than in all of our other meets. We are going to try to run a very disciplined race and put ourselves in a position where we have a legitimate chance to maximize our team performance.”

The University of Oklahoma men's team, ranked No. 18 nationally and No. 2 in the Midwest region, will be led by its three All-Big 12 runners in sophomore Kevin Schwab, junior Rob Sorrell and redshirt-freshman Bill Kogel, who was named 2009 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.

Both Schwab and Kogel are coming off top-ten finishes at the Big 12 Championships, finishing sixth and 10th respectively, which marked the first time since the creation of the Big 12 that two Sooner runners finished among the top-10 competitors in the same Big 12 Championships. Sorrell, the Sooners' captain, finished 11th.

Live Text Message Alerts 2009 NCAA Midwest Regional Central

Other members of the men's team competing this weekend include juniors Clay Mayes and Jeremy Sudbury, redshirt-freshman Kevin Williams and true freshmen Bobby Nicolls and Pat Gomez. Both Williams and Sudbury are coming off top-25 finishes at the Big 12s, finishing 23rd and 25th, respectively.

“It's a goal of every team when you get to this point in the season to have a legitimate chance to advance to nationals. Oklahoma has never qualified a team for nationals and this would be a very important step in our attempt to build a nationally competitive cross country program,” said Smith.

Senior Lauren Watson and sophomore Molly Ferguson will represent the Sooners women's team in Springfield this weekend. Watson who paced the 6,000 meter course for OU at the Big 12s, with a time of 22:58.16 and a 38th-place finish will lead the way.

Ferguson's best finish this year came in her first competition as a Sooner, finishing 17th at the Hurricane Festival on Sept. 5.

The Midwest Region includes schools from 10 conferences, including the Atlantic 10, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Conference-USA, Horizon League, Mid-American, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, and Summit League, as well as one D-I Independent.

Both teams will face numerous top-30 opponents this Saturday.The No. 18 men will compete against Big 12 rival No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Colorado, No. 27 Iowa State and No. 29 Minnesota. The women will face stiff competition in No. 13 Illinois, No. 17 Minnesota and No. 18 Iowa State.

The top two teams from the Midwest Regional will advance to the 2009 NCAA National Championships along with the top two teams from eight other NCAA Regionals. The remainder of the 31-team NCAA Championships field will consist of 13 at-large teams selected by the NCAA Division I track and field sub-committee.

In addition to the teams qualifying for the NCAA Championships, thirty-six individuals automatically qualify for the race on the basis of finishing in the top four at their respective NCAA Regionals and not being on an advancing team. Two additional individuals are selected at-large by the committee to round out the field of 255 competitors. All individual qualifiers must finish in the top 25 of their event.

The 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships will be hosted by Indiana State University and are scheduled for Monday, Nov. 23, in Terre Haute, Ind.

Complete results and a full recap of the Midwest Regional will be available on SoonerSports.com shortly after the events conclusion.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Cross Country to Compete in NCAA Regionals

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