Nov. 10, 2006
Columbia, Mo. - The University of Missouri men's and women's cross country teams are set to compete in the NCAA Midwest Region Championships Saturday in Minnesota. The men's 10k and women's 6k races are hosted by the University of Minnesota at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, a suburb of the Twin Cities. The women's race begins at 11 a.m. (CT) and the men's race begins at 12:15 p.m. (CT). The Tigers will try to qualify for the NCAA Championships, Nov. 20 in Terre Haute, Ind.
The top two teams will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. In addition, the NCAA will select 13 teams to compete. Individually, the top four runners not on an advancing team will qualify for the national race.
Tiger Head Coach Jared Wilmes says the regional field is tough this year.
"On both the men's and women's side, the (Midwest) region is very strong, it is as strong as its been in 10 years, and we are really excited about lining up Saturday."
Nationally ranked teams in the men's race include host Minnesota (15), Kansas (20), Oklahoma State (23) and Iowa (28), The host Gophers also have the highest nationally ranked team in the women's race, Minnesota's women's team is ranked sixth. Illinois is 13th and Iowa is ranked 23rd.
The Mizzou men and women are both ranked seventh in the Midwest Region. The men were ranked as high as sixth this season (9/25-10/16) and the women also were ranked as high as sixth (10/3-10/16).
Big 12 Championships
Missouri is coming off the Big 12 Championships, Oct. 27 in Lawrence, Kan. The men finished sixth while the women finished seventh in the 11th annual conference meet.
Senior Tim Ross (Alto, Mich.) finished 15th at the conference meet and earned All-Big 12 cross country honors for the third time. For the third race in a row, sophomore Garett Jeffries (Clarkson Valley, Mo.) and freshman Dan Hedgecock (St. Louis, Mo.) finished second and third respectively for the Tigers at 24th and 25th overall. On the women's side, junior Kate Greer (Marshalltown, Iowa) finished first for the Tigers and 17th overall. The Big 12 race marked the first time Greer finished first among Mizzou runners this season. The top Tiger finisher in the previous two races, senior Amanda Bales (Bettendorf, Iowa), finished second for Mizzou and 24th overall in the Big 12 race.
2005 Midwest Regionals
Last season the Midwest Region Championships were held in Iowa City, Iowa, and then-senior Matt Noonan (Baldwin City, Kan.) qualified for the NCAA Championships by finishing 3rd in the regional race. The Mizzou men's squad finished sixth in the race. Then-senior Valerie Lauver (Allen, Texas) led the women to a seventh-place finish.
Current Mizzou Runners' History at the Midwest Region Meet
Starting on the men's side, Ross finished eighth in the 2004 Midwest Regionals, his most recent regional meet. The eighth-place finish was good enough to qualify for the NCAA race where he finished 233rd. In the 2005 Midwest meet, then-freshman Jeffries finished 33rd overall and second for the Tigers. Colten Green (Roach, Mo.) and Billy Bell (Chesterfield, Mo.) finished 37th and 57th respectively in the '05 race.
Like Ross, Bales also missed last year's regional meet. In her last regional race (2005) she finished 15th. Last season, then-sophomore Maddie Schueler (Louisville, Mo.) finished 55th. Then-sophomore Kasey Kimball (Eureka, Mo.) and then-freshman Ellen Ries (Ryan, Iowa) finished 61st and 88th, respectively.