A-State Cross Country Teams Set For Friday’s NCAA Regional Meet JONESBORO, Ark. (11/13/13) – The 2013 Arkansas State University women’s and men’s cross country teams will seek to continue reaching new heights this fall within their respective programs as the Red Wolves run in the NCAA Division I South Central Regional Championships this Friday (Nov. 15) morning at Waco, Texas. The regional championship meet will take place at the Cottonwood Creek Golf Course and is being hosted by Baylor University. The men’s 10K championship race is set to start at 10 a.m. (CT) proceeded by the women’s 6K run at 11:15 a.m. (CT). Follow the completion of the second race, recognition of the top individual runners and teams will be held. The A-State women’s team, which was crowned Sun Belt Conference (SBC) Champions for the first time in program history, is currently ranked 10th in the most recent (Nov. 4) United States Track and Field & Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division I South Central Regional Rankings. The Red Wolves, under coaches Jim Patchell and Kyle Chandler, claimed their first SBC title with a first-place 50 points total in the 2013 conference meet (Nov. 2) at Troy, Ala. Arkansas State will be taking eight runners to the women’s regional meet in senior Bailey Sisson-Eller, juniors Kristina Aubert, Tilda Helgesson, HeatherNewberry, Rexi Parcells, and Chelsey Roberson, sophomore Abbey Dixon, and freshman Brianne Murphy. This season, Aubert received first-team all-league recognition for the second straight year after placing first in the conference championships. Parcells was a repeat all-conference second-team honoree while Dixon and Helgesson both garnered third-team all-league laurels for the 2013 season. “The South Central Regional women’s field is particularly deeper at the mid-level as compared to previous seasons so our women have a tall challenge to improve upon last year’s ninth-place finish,” said Chandler. “But with the focus they gained from their Sun Belt ConferenceChampionship title, I believe they are up for the challenge.” A season ago, the A-State women’s squad recorded a program-best ninth-place showing at the NCAA-I South Central Regional Championship meet (Nov. 9) in Fayetteville, Ark., by generating a 233 teams points total. Kristina Aubert was the Red Wolves’ top runner with a seventh-place 21:11.20 time and picked up all-region accolades as a result of being among the meet’s top 25 individual finishers. She would go on to become the first-ever A-State competitor at the NCAA-I Championship meet. The A-State men’s team is also coming off a record-setting performance at the Sun Belt Conference Championships as the Red Wolves’ fourth-place effort equaled a program all-time high. A-State chalked up 142 points in the conference meet. A pair of A-State runners, junior LukeLindsley and sophomore Lance Beckman will be participating in the regional meet for the second year in a row. Joining the two is senior Devin Reed, sophomores Jesse Duvall and Wil Norris along with freshmen Austin DeWitt, Kyle Somerville, and Zach VanGundy. Lindsley was the Red Wolves’ top finisher at the 2012 regional event with a 78th-place finish while Norris took 11th in the 2013 SBC Championships to earn third-team all-leagueplaudits. “We are excited to see how the men compete with the momentum gained from the Sun Belt Conference Championships,” said Chandler. “The group has gained significant confidence from that racing experience and it should serve them well in this competition. I think the men are excited to see what they can do at the regional championships.” The South Central Region is comprised of teams from a three-state range - Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas while consisting of programs from eight different conferences in the Big 12, Conference USA, Great West Southeastern Conference, Southland, Southwestern Athletic Conference, Sun Belt and Western Athletic Conference. The South Central Region is one of nine NCAA Division I regional sites with theother hosts sites being Madison, Wis. (Great Lakes); Bethlehem, Pa. (Mid-Atlantic); Ames, Iowa (Midwest); Odgen, Utah (Mountain); Bronx, N.Y. (Northeast); Tuscaloosa, Ala. (South); Earlysville, Va. (Southeast); and Sacramento, Calif. (West). The regional championship meets lead up to the 2013 NCAA Division I Championships, which will be conducted Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind. The top two teams and top four individuals not on an advancing team receive an automatic berth into the national championship event. Additional teams and individuals are chosen through an at-large selection process, which will result in 31 teams along with 38 individuals advancing to the 2013 national meet.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 16:47:18 +0000
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