Nov. 9, 2004
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COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Missouri cross-country teams will take on the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships this Saturday morning in Peoria, Ill., hosted by Bradley University. The No. 9 nationally-ranked women's team is coming off a second-place showing from the Big 12 Championships and is currently the coaches' poll favorite to win the region. While the women will run their six-kilometer race at 11:00 a.m., Saturday morning, the Mizzou men will follow with their 10-kilometer run at Noon.
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Location: Peoria, Ill.
Course: Newman Golf Course
Host: Bradley Univ. & NCAA Scoring: Seven runners to a team, the teams' final score will be the sum of the top five of each group. Schedule: Women - 11:00am, 6k Men - Noon, 10k Results: ncaasports.com, bubraves.com Honors: To earn All-Region honors, an indvidual must finish in the top 25 of the overall indvidual standings. Advancement: 31 teams will advance to the NCAA Championships, with 18 coming from automatic births. The top two from each of the nine regions will advance automatically. The 13 at-large bids are little more tricky, see explaniation below. The top four indivduals not on a qualifying team will also advance to the NCAA Championships as an indivdual entry. Also, two at-large indviduals also determined by the NCAA Track & Field Committee, making a total of 38 indivduals qualifying for the NCAAs. At-Large Bids: selected Monday, November 15th ... TEAM - an at-large team cannot be selected with a fourth-place regional finish without having the third-place team in the region advance. For at-large advancement, an emphsis is placed on regional finish, wins against nationally qualified teams, and head-to-head competition against others in the at-large pool, that step is determined by record versus common opponents and top individual head -to-head matchups.
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"We are excited about this meet coming up after coming together the way we did at Big 12s," said Rebecca Wilmes, Associate Head Coach of Cross Country. "I think we are definitely going to be challenged by Oklahoma State and Illinois. OSU was third at Big 12s, and I think they will be a serious threat to win. The regional race usually breaks down differently than what happens at the conference meet, and that could go in anyone's favor. Illinois is 16th in the nation right now and finished tied for second in a tough Big Ten Conference and they have strong runners. There will be big challenges, and we will have to run great to win the region."
"Our men have a lot of momentum from the Big 12 meet," said Jared Wilmes, Head Coach of Cross Country whose men's team finished a surprising fifth at the Big 12 Conference Championships two weekends ago. "Tim Ross and Matt Noonan had a great Big 12 race and that has given them a big confidence boost. Now, our other guys on the team know we have a good 1-2 punch and that will prompt them to get up to the pack and run with them. Our guys are enthusiastic and the progress that we've made through the year is starting to pay off."
The Field
The Midwest Region is one of the nine regions around the country that will be running meets on Saturday. In the Midwest Region are all schools from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. The Tiger women are favored to win the region with Illinois and Oklahoma State picked to go 2-3 according to the coaches' poll. Illinois is ranked 16th in the country - Oklahoma State is ranked 26th. On the men's side, Oklahoma State is the favorite to win their seventh Midwest Region title in 10 years. Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, and Illinois round out the regions' top five teams. The Tigers are picked to finish seventh in the region and repeat their performance from 2003.
How To Advance To The NCAA Championships
There are two ways to advance to the NCAA Championships, the hard way and the easy way. The easy way is hard to do, but easy to explain. Finish as one of the top two from the region and advance on to the championships automatically. As an individual, finish in the top four of individuals not part of a qualifying team and you're in.
And there is the hard way. Thirty-one teams will advance to the NCAA Championships, with eighteen coming from the top two of each of the nine regions. The remaining 13 will have to earn at-large birth. The fuzzy math involved with determining at-large bids requires more than an abacus. Here's the easiest way to describe it. Of the remaining teams that did not receive automatic bids, the NCAA Track & Field Committee considers several criterions to get its field. By the way, if a team that finishes fourth in the region makes the championship field, the team that placed third must go along as well. First, the committee considers the pool's regional finish and wins against nationally automatically qualified teams from the regular season, including the regionals. In any closely contested spots remaining, the committee considers head-to-head competition against others in the at-large pool for the consideration. That is determined by a record versus common opponents in addition to an analysis of a head-to-head match-up between the teams' top individuals. Confused yet?
A 10k?!?!?
Yes, the men's race is ten-kilometers (about 6¼ miles) in length. The race length is always brought out for the NCAA Regionals and NCAA Championship meet.
Big Day At Big 12's
The Tiger Cross Country teams brought their "A" game for the Big 12 Championships two weekends ago. The women's team finished with the best score in team Big 12 Championship history scoring only 59 points to take second place, marking the eighth time in nine years that the women have achieved the feat. Amanda Bales, Serena Ramsey, and Jill Petersen placed 6-7-8 to earn All-Big 12 honors. Bales earned her ninth All-Big 12 honor of her career, and the third for cross country. The women's 6-7-8-9 finishers were even huge in the Tigers' success and may mirror great successes to come as all nine crossed the line in the top 40, a feat that six-time consecutive Big 12 Champ Colorado can not claim. Missouri's No. 9 runner also crossed the line before the first runner from Kansas, Iowa State, or Texas.
The men's team also put on stirring performance placing fifth, improving three spots from their 2003 eighth-place showing. Juniors Matt Noonan and Tim Ross earned All-Big 12 honors. Ross' sixth-place individual finish is the best for any Tiger in the conference championships in 25 years and was the only in the top 10 in that period of time.
Rebecca Wilmes to Enter Missouri's Hall of Fame
Associate Head Coach Rebecca Wilmes received some good news on Tuesday as it was announced that she along five other former Tigers from around the athletic department will be inducted into Missouri's Intercollegiate Hall of Fame. Wilmes, then known as Rebecca Davis, became one of Mizzou's top distance runners in school history, and along the way, helped establish MU as one of the premier distance programs in the nation. Her list of accomplishments include: two-time All-American in track, at 800 meters (12th in 1995 NCAA Indoor Championships) and at 1,500 meters (11th in 1997 NCAA Outdoor Championships); 1996 NCAA Midwest Regional cross country individual champion, and twice led the Tiger harriers to team appearances in the NCAA Championships; NCAA All-District in cross country three times (1994-96); won two Big Eight championships (1995 Indoor 800 meters; 1995 Indoor distance medley relay); won championships at the Drake Relays and the Kansas Relays, and was an Olympic Trials qualifier at 1,500 meters in 2000.
A Strange Parallel, The Last Time Regionals Were Held In Peoria
Strangely enough the last time the Tigers were in Peoria, Ill., for the NCAA Regional Championships was in 1996. That year, Tiger coach Rebecca Wilmes (Davis) won the individual title and led the Tigers to a co-championship.
All-Region Performers Returning
Four Tiger women - Amanda Bales, Valerie Lauver, Jill Petersen, and Serena Ramsey - have all earned All-Region honors in the past which are claimed by finishing in the top 25 of the championship field. Bales has earned the honor in both of her first two years as a Tiger, placing third her freshman year in 2002 and winning the individual title in 2003. Bales was named the Midwest Region Runner of the Year in 2003 for her efforts.
On the men's side, the Tigers return juniors Chase Hall and Tim Ross as past All-Region honorees. Hall placed 24th in the 2003 championships - Ross was 12th.
Tigers' Region History
The Tigers are no stranger to success in the NCAA Regional Championships. The women's team has won five regional titles including the last championship in 2002. From 1995 to 1997, Missouri was a three-peat champion, sharing the title in 1996 with Iowa State. The women's team has not placed out of the top five in the region for the past 10 years and has finished first or second in seven of those years. In fact, in the 27-year existence of the regional cross country championships, the Mizzou women have placed out of the top five only four times. Individually, the Tiger women have taken seven titles including Amanda Bales' championship in 2003. Other champs include Erin Windler in 1997, Davis in 1996, Susan Bliss in 1990, Andrea Fischer in 1984, and Sabrina Dornhoefer in 1983 and 1982.
The Tiger men won a team title in 1977 with junior Steve Fisher leading the way, placing third. Fisher's '77 performance along with Nick Smith's third place finish in 2000, are the best individual finishes by a Tiger male in the regional championships.
Weather Watch
It will be chilly. Sunny conditions are expected Saturday morning but a nice clipping easterly wind at around 10 m.p.h. could make the 40-degree temperatures feel a little biting, but hey, at least the sun will be out. Right?
For complete results following the races, visit bubraves.com or ncaasports.com shortly after 1 p.m. A complete wrap-up will be available on mutigers.com later Saturday afternoon.