Liberty XC Ready for Friday's NCAA SE Regional
11/7/2018 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
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The Liberty men's and women's cross country teams will travel to former Big South foe Winthrop (Rock Hill, S.C.) for Friday's 2018 NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships. The meet will determine the qualifiers for the 2018 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Madison, Wis.
The women's 6K will begin at 11 a.m., followed by the men's 10K race at noon.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Live results, featuring in-race splits and team scores, will be provided courtesy of Flash Results.
Weather Report
Friday's weather forecast for Rock Hill shows the temperature in the 50s with a 60 percent chance of rain.
Checking Out the Course
Winthrop is hosting the NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships for the first time on Friday. Liberty was scheduled to preview the course at the Sept. 15 Winthrop/Adidas Invitational, but that event was one of many cancelled due to Hurricane Florence.
Liberty has fond memories of its last meet at Winthrop, as the Flames and Lady Flames swept the team titles at the 2012 Big South Cross Country Championships on Oct. 27, 2012. Jennifer Klugh was the women's individual champion, while David Ricksecker (younger brother of Liberty interim head coach Rebekah Ricksecker) placed second to pace the Liberty men's squad.
Winthrop's course is primarily flat, which could yield some fast times on Friday. Jennifer Klugh's Big South-winning 5K time of 17:18.72 from 2012 at Winthrop stood as Liberty's program record for three years.
How to Punch Your Ticket to Madison
The common goal for all men's and women's teams competing in Rock Hill on Friday is to qualify for the 2018 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, to be contested Nov. 17 at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wis. Here's what it takes:
Team Qualification: The top two teams at each of Friday's nine regional meets will automatically advance to the national meet. Liberty's region consists of teams from Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The national field will then be filled with 13 at-large selections, comprising a total of 31 men's and 31 women's teams which will compete in Madison. The at-large squads will be determined using a formula based upon head-to-head success against other national qualifiers during the regular season.
Individual Qualification: All runners who place in the top 25 at the regional meet earn all-region recognition and become eligible for advancement to Madison. The national meet features 38 individual competitors not on advancing teams. The top four finishers from each regional meet who are not part of a national-qualifying squad will punch their ticket to Madison. Then, two at-large individuals will be added to round out the national field.
In summary, the only people who will know for sure that they are bound for Madison on Friday are the top two teams in each race and the first four individual finishers who are not part of one of those teams. The complete field of team and individual qualifiers to Madison will be revealed Saturday on NCAA.com.
Women's 6K Preview
Team Outlook: After placing second at its inaugural ASUN Cross Country Championships appearance, Liberty aims to improve upon its 26th-place Southeast Region finish from 2017.
The Lady Flames are currently ranked No. 16 among Southeast Region squads in the Cross Country Rating Index (CCRI), just one spot behind High Point, which captured its second straight Big South title.
Liberty is looking for its first top-15 regional finish since the 2012 Lady Flames came in 15th in Charlotte, N.C. That meet took place at McAlpine Creek Park, just 30 miles away from Rock Hill.
The Lady Flames will not face any ASUN Conference foes on Friday, as most of the conference squads will race in the NCAA Division I South Regional Championships in Tallahassee, Fla.
Three Lady Flames (senior Kammi Kurtz and sophomores Lauren Hirneisen and Noel Palmer) return from the seven-person squad which competed at last year's regional meet. Palmer finished a team-best 126th overall. Kurtz, who came in 142nd a year ago, will be racing at this meet for the third straight year on Friday.
Redshirt junior Greer Wilson and the freshman trio of Emma Bower, Calli Parlier and Kyley Sorg will all make their regional debuts this week. This is the second straight year that Liberty's regional lineup has featured three freshmen.
Defending regional champion NC State and 2017 regional runner-up Furman are favored to claim the top two spots once again this season.
Individual Outlook: Noel Palmer has enjoyed a strong sophomore campaign, finishing a close second at the ASUN meet most recently.
Palmer also won the Queen City Invite women's 5K title on Sept. 28, clocking a time of 17:09 which broke Ednah Kurgat's school record by two seconds.
Kurgat was the most recent Lady Flame to advance to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, thanks to her runner-up finish at the 2015 Southeast Region meet.
ASUN Freshman of the Year Calli Parlier will also look to continue her impressive rookie campaign, which included a fifth-place showing at the conference meet.
Kurgat and Samantha Pelletier (18th place in 2001) are the only two Lady Flames freshmen to ever earn NCAA Division I all-region medals.
Top individual contenders include the ACC's champion (Louisville's Dorcas Wasike) and runner-up (NC State's Elly Henes), the SoCon's champion (Wofford's Hannah Steelman) and runner-up (Furman's Savannah Carnahan) and Big South winner Famke Heinst of High Point.
Men's 10K Preview
Team Outlook: The ASUN runner-up Liberty men's cross country team will now square off against a challenging Southeast Region field headlined by four nationally ranked teams (No. 16 Eastern Kentucky, No. 20 Furman, No. 26 NC State and No. 28 Virginia).
The Flames currently check in at No. 10 in the Southeast Region after reaching No. 4 earlier this season.
A year ago, Liberty placed seventh at this meet, representing its best regional placement since a seventh-place showing in 2012. The team's best-ever Southeast Region finish is fifth place, achieved in both 2007 and 2008.
Three of the Flames' top four finishers from last year's Southeast Region meet are back, including Azaria Kirwa (third place), James Zentmeyer (43rd place) and Augostine Lisoreng (69th place).
They will be joined by a trio of second team All-ASUN performers in Benjamin Klemmeck, Nick Doan and Felix Kandie.
Like the Lady Flames, the men's squad will not face any ASUN opponents on Friday. However, the Flames will get to renew their rivalry with four-time defending Big South champion Campbell.
Furman will attempt to defend its crown after claiming the program's first-ever regional title a season ago.
Individual Outlook: Azaria Kirwa finished third in the men's 10K at the 2017 NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships, punching his ticket to the national meet. The following week, Kirwa placed 25th at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships to become an All-American.
Kirwa has been stellar as a senior, winning four of his five races. Most recently, he captured the ASUN men's 8K championship by 10 seconds.
However, Kirwa will face plenty of competition up front on Friday. The top five finishers from the 2017 Southeast Region meet are back, including champion Lawrence Kipkoech of Campbell, runner-up Amon Kemboi of Campbell, third-place Kirwa, fourth-place Nadeel Wildschutt of Coastal Carolina and fifth-place Aaron Templeton of Furman.
Additional contenders include the ACC's champion (Virginia Tech's Peter Seufer) and runner-up (Wake Forest's Zach Facioni), the OVC's champion (Eastern Kentucky's James Sugira) and Adriaan Wildschutt of Coastal Carolina, who finished a close second to his brother Nadeel at the Sun Belt meet.
Kirwa will attempt to join Josh McDougal, Sam Chelanga and Evans Kigen as the only Liberty men's runners to make multiple appearances at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.
Kirwa will also contend for the Flames' first Southeast Region men's individual title since 2010 (Chelanga). McDougal and Chelanga combined to win six out of seven Southeast Region championships between 2004 and 2010.
