Next Step For Tiger Cross Country-NCAA Championships
11/17/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
Nov. 17, 1999
Next Stop for Tigers - NCAA Championships
The University of Missouri men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Bloomington, Ind., next Monday, Nov. 22, for the NCAA Championships. The men's 10,000m race will start at 11:00 a.m. with the women's 5,000m race beginning at 12:15 on the Indiana University Cross Country Course.
In 1998, the Missouri men finished their season 27th in the country at their first NCAA appearance in 21 years. The Tigers return four of their scorers from the 1998 nationals. Nick Smith was Mizzou's No. 1 runner crossing the finish line in 93rd place. Adam MacDowell finished 117th, Mike Larson cross the line 189th and Joel McCune came in 241st.
Three other men's Big 12 teams and four women's teams are invited to the championship. Colorado and Missouri are the only conference teams to earn automatic bids for both the men's and women's teams. The other league teams that qualified on the men's side are Texas A&M and Oklahoma State while Nebraska and Texas round out the other women's league teams to qualify.
History Making Day
Missouri made history on Saturday, Nov. 13 at the Region V Championships in Champaign, Ill. Both the men's and women's teams earned automatic berth to the NCAA Championships with their second place finishes at the Region meet marking the first time in school history both teams automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships. Nine Tigers also earned All-Regional honors by finishing in the top-25, marking another first for Mizzou.
Men At A Glance
After finishing third by one point at the Big 12 Championships (Oct. 30), the Missouri men's cross country team came out with a vengeance to finish second at the Region V Championships and automatically qualify for the National Championships with four of MU's five scorers also garnered All-Region honors. Mizzou's top-five finishers were junior Nick Smith who placed 6th followed by fellow junior Adam MacDowell who finished 8th overall. Senior Joel McCune cross the finish line in 17th, junior Greg Speicher finished 22nd and sophomore Steve Wade crossed in 34th place.
Men's Noteworthy Achievements
- Nick Smith overcame a subpar performance at the conference meet due to a bee sting to again lead Missouri at the Region meet. Smith has been the Tigers No. 1 runner three times leading up to the NCAA Championships.
- Adam MacDowell garnered his second consecutive postseason honor last weekend. He earned All-Big 12 honors for his 11th place finish at the conference championships. The junior also earned All-Region honors for his 8th place performance at the regional championships.
- Steve Wade has shown great improvement between his freshman and sophomore campaigns. He was continually a top-8 performer for MU last year, but has finished in Mizzou's top-5 in five of the six competitions the team has raced in during the 1999 season.
Last In Rank Team (first place votes) Region Points Week Region1 Arkansas (16) SC 400 1 1Q 2 Stanford W 376 5 1Q 3 North Carolina State SE 372 2 1Q 4 Wisconsin GL 339 6 1Q 5 Colorado MT 336 3 2Q 6 Arizona W 332 4 2Q 7 Notre Dame GL 300 8 2Q 8 Michigan GL 274 7 3q 9 Georgetown MA 272 9 1Q 10 Arizona State W 246 15 3q 11 Southern Utah MT 218 -- 1Q 12 Oregon W 214 11 4q 13 William & Mary SE 204 17 2Q 14 Villanova MA 191 13 2Q 15 BYU MT 166 12 3q 16 James Madison SE 142 10 3q 17 Iona College NE 130 -- 1Q 18 Minnesota MW 124 19 1Q 19 Northern Arizona MT 121 14 4q 20 Providence NE 90 20 2Q 21 Southern Mississippi S 89 25 1Q 22 Weber State MT 84 16 5q 23 Princeton MA 48 21 3q 24 Cal Poly St Luis Obispo W 34 -- 5q 25 Dartmouth NE 23 24 3q -- Portland W 18 6q -- Missouri MW -- 2Q -- Alabama S -- 2Q -- Oklahoma State MW -- 3q -- Texas A&M SC -- 2Q -- Rice SC -- 3q -- Tennessee S 22 4 -- Utah MT 23 7
NE=Northeast, MA=Mid-Atlantic, SE=Southeast, GL=Great Lakes, MW=Midwest, SC=South Central, MT=Mountain, W=West, S=South
