Nov. 10, 2011
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Mizzou men's and women's cross country teams will travel to DeKalb, Ill., on Saturday (Nov. 12) for the NCAA Midwest Regional, hosted by Northern Illinois University. The Tigers will compete against 33 schools from around the region, including Big 12 foes Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Complete meet information is available here.
Coach Rebecca Wilmes' women's squad came in fourth at the Big 12 Championships, keyed by a 14th-place finish from junior Bailey Belvis (Prosper, Texas) in the individual standings. Their strong performance vaulted the Tigers to fifth in the regional polls. Wilmes said she is very pleased by her team's steady improvement throughout the year.
“Our women have been working hard, and they've had great preparation and focus leading into the Championship season,” Wilmes said. “We're coming off the Big 12 Championships, where all our ladies delivered a great effort and all ran significant lifetime bests. We want to continue to build upon this momentum. We're looking forward to lining up Saturday and again competing tough.”
On the men's side, Coach Joe Lynn's squad moved up to seventh in the region after taking sixth place at the conference meet. Running Saturday for the Tigers are redshirt seniors Dan Quigley (St. Louis, Mo.), Phillip King (Columbia, Mo.), and Kyle Rood (St. Peters, Mo.); junior Max Storms (Kansas City, Mo.); redshirt sophomores Tyler Compton (Buffalo, Mo.) and Hayden Legg (Mexico, Mo.); and sophomore Merid Seleshi (Scarborough, Ontario).
“The men are excited about going out and competing to their fullest this weekend against some of the nation's best,” Lynn said. “They've been hard at work since the beginning of summer for this day, so I'm looking forward to seeing it pay off. We'll be moving up in distance to a 10K this weekend, but all of our workouts since Day 1 of practice have been focused on being ready for the Midwest Regional and the National Championships. We had a great showing at the Big 12 meet, so hopefully the confidence from that will carry over to Saturday.”
Following Saturday's meet, any Tiger athletes who qualify for the NCAA National Championships will compete at that event Nov. 21 in Terre Haute, Ind. For complete coverage of the Midwest Regional and the latest news about Mizzou Cross Country, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter @MIZ_TrackField.
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