CEDAR CITY, Utah– After wrapping up competition at the WAC Championships on October 29th, the Southern Utah University cross country program will now travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to compete in the NCAA Mountain Regional on Friday, November 11th.
LAST TIME OUT
SUU last competed in the WAC Championships, and the Thunderbird men finished in second place overall with 63 total points, and the women's team finished in fourth with 93 points, qualifying both teams for the Mountain regionals.
Isaiah Labra battled with a lead pack of Cal Baptist runners in the 8k throughout the race before charging forward to claim the Thunderbird's top individual finish in fourth place with a blazing time of 23:15.0.
Travis Feeny and Santiago Gaitan secured two more top-10 finishes for Southern Utah. Both Thunderbirds finished the race just a tenth of a second apart as Feeny took eighth place with a 23:43.7 and Gaitan grabbed ninth place with a time of 23:43.8.
Junior Hayden Harward put up a stellar time of 23:51.4 to take 13th place, and freshman Nethaneel Taylor rounded out the scoring for SUU in 29th place with a time of 24:32.9.
Madisan DeBos was the first woman to cross the finish line for Southern Utah, taking 11th place with a blistering 20:44.5. Not far behind was Haley Tanne, who turned on the jets and finished in 14th place with a 20:52.3. Both athletes clinched second-team All-WAC honors with these finishes.
Coming in third for the Thunderbirds was Sariah Hernandez, who finished with a time of 21:11.0 to take 21st place. Rounding out the lineup were Jordyn Bartolomucci and Quinn Hagerman, who finished in consecutive order. Bartolomucci grabbed 23rd place with a 21:18.8, and Hagerman took 24th second behind with a 21:23.6.
Mountain Regional Preview
The 2022 Mountain Regionals will be hosted by the New Mexico Lobos and will take place on the UNM Golf Course.
New Mexico's north golf course is home to one of the nation's top cross-country environments. The course sits at 5,085 feet above sea level and has been the UNM cross country's home since 2000.
The Thunderbirds will be facing a field of 365 other runners from some of the top programs in the country. Southern Utah's women will be taking on a mountain division that has five of the nation's top-10 teams, including New Mexico, NAU, BYU, Colorado, and Utah. On the men's side, the Thunderbirds will have to battle three top-five teams, including BYU, NAU, and Air Force.
The top two teams in each region will secure a chance at the NCAA Championships, on Saturday, November 19th at Oklahoma State's course in Stillwater. The first four regional finishers also earn an automatic bid and there will also be 13 at-large teams that will be selected by the NCAA DI Cross Country Subcommittee.
The women's 6k race will kick things off at 11 a.m. MT and the men's 10k race will follow at noon MT.
LIVE RESULTS
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