COLUMBIA, Mo. – The No. 20 women’s and No. 26 men’s Mizzou cross country teams travel to Ames, Iowa, to compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship on Friday, Nov. 13, at the Iowa State Cross Country Course.

The women’s 6K starts at 11 a.m. CT, followed by the men’s 10K at noon. Top individuals and teams will be recognized following the second race.

For the women, Rahel Broemmel, Mirriam Chepkirui, Charlotte Cullen, Suzy Lecoutre, Emery Mayfield, Kobi Walker, Monica Wanjiku and Morgan Yeomans are slated to run. On the men’s side, Joshua Allison, Joseph Bariola, Tyler Freiner, Jean Kipchumba, Raymond Kipkoech, Emmanuel Kiprop, Elijah Limo and Carter Spradling are set to race.

Both squads enter the meet ranked nationally, with the women at No. 20 and the men at No. 26 in the USTFCCCA National Coaches’ Poll released Nov. 3. The men returned to the poll in that edition following their fourth-place finish at the SEC Championship. In the USTFCCCA Regional Rankings, the women are second and the men fifth in the Midwest. FloTrack’s latest rankings place the women 19th and the men 25th.

Four other nationally ranked women’s teams are in the field: No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 21 Northwestern, No. 25 Iowa State and No. 28 Minnesota. The men’s 10K includes No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Iowa State, No. 22 Minnesota and No. 30 Tulsa. The Tigers have already competed against several teams in the field this season, including Iowa State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Drake at the Cyclone Opener, Saint Louis at the Billiken Invitational and SEC opponent Oklahoma at the Nuttycombe Invitational. Just under 600 athletes are entered across the two races.

The top two teams in each of the nine regions automatically qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championship on Saturday, Nov. 21, at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind. The NCAA Division I Cross Country Subcommittee selects 14 additional at-large teams to complete the 32-team field. A total of 38 individuals also advance, including the first four finishers in each region not on a qualifying team and two at-large selections.

The Black & Gold opened the season on the same course at the Cyclone Opener on Sept. 4, where Limo earned his first collegiate win and both teams placed second. The course opened in 1995 as the nation’s first course designed exclusively for competitive cross country racing. It has hosted the 1995 and 2000 NCAA Championships and four Big 12 Championships, most recently in 2023, and Friday marks the fourth time it hosts the NCAA Midwest Regional, following 1997, 2013 and 2017.

Mizzou continues its postseason after a pair of fourth-place finishes at the SEC Championship on Oct. 30 at Gans Creek Cross Country Course. Wanjiku led the women for the second straight year, placing seventh in a personal-best 19:05.2 to earn All-SEC First Team honors for the second consecutive season. Kipchumba paced the men in eighth place in 22:32.2 to earn All-SEC Second Team and All-Freshman Team honors in his conference championship debut. Both ran the fastest times by a Tiger at an SEC Championship and at Gans Creek in program history, and junior Walker added All-SEC Third Team honors in 17th.

Missouri last sent both teams to the NCAA Championship in 2000, when the meet was held on the same Ames course and the men placed 27th and the women 16th. The women qualified last season and placed 28th in Columbia in the program’s 13th appearance. The last time the women advanced in consecutive seasons was 2002-04, a run of three straight trips. The men’s most recent appearance was 2000.

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