NCAA SE Regional Championships to Return to Louisville on Friday
11/9/2022 4:25:55 PM | Cross Country
For the second year in a row, ASUN men’s and women’s runner-up Liberty will head to Louisville, Ky., for Friday’s NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships. The meet, which will determine the team and individual qualifiers to the 2022 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, will be contested at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park.
The women’s 6K is scheduled for 11 a.m., with the men’s 10K to follow at noon.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Live results, featuring in-progress splits and team scores, will be provided by Flash Results.
Weather Report
Friday’s weather in Louisville calls for rain showers and a temperature in the 50s.
Checking Out the Course
The NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships will be contested in Louisville for the second straight year and the eighth time overall.
A year ago, the Lady Flames posted their best-ever regional finish (fifth) and Calli Doan qualified for the national meet with a fourth-place individual showing. The men’s squad also achieved its highest regional finish in program history at this course, fifth place in 2007.
All three of the Flames’ NCAA Division I cross country individual national championships (Josh McDougal – 2007, Sam Chelanga – 2009 and Sam Chelanga – 2010) were preceded by an individual regional title in Louisville.
How to Punch Your Ticket to Stillwater
The common goal for all men’s and women’s teams competing in Louisville on Friday is to qualify for the 2022 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, to be contested Nov. 19 at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Okla. 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 Stillwater. 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 Stillwater. 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 Stillwater. 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 Stillwater 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 Stillwater will be revealed Saturday at 5 p.m. on NCAA.com.
Women’s Team Preview
The last time the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships took place in Stillwater (spring 2021), the Lady Flames qualified as a team for the first time in program history.
If Liberty is to return to Oklahoma for a second time, the Lady Flames will need to record their best regional finish in program history for the second straight season, improving on last year’s fifth-place showing.
Liberty is currently ranked No. 6 in the regional poll, trailing a trio of ACC squads (NC State – No. 1, Virginia – No. 2 and North Carolina – No. 3), Southern Conference champion Furman (No. 4) and Kentucky.
Defending national champion NC State is a considerable favorite to capture its sixth straight regional title.
The Lady Flames defeated No. 17 Toledo head-to-head at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational earlier this season and would benefit from a Rockets top-two finish at Friday’s Great Lakes Regional.
Liberty will feature a different-looking squad from the one which placed fifth in 2021, with only Calli Doan, Anna Hostetler and Marie Hostetler returning to Louisville from that unit. The Lady Flames have been buoyed by the talented freshman duo of Ava Gordon and Kayla Werner as well as a breakthrough season from Catherine Farrell.
Women’s Individual Preview
Coming off of her second consecutive ASUN individual title, Calli Doan hopes to qualify for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships for the second year in a row.
Last season, Doan placed fourth at this meet before going on to earn All-America honors with a 28th-place NCAA national finish.
In 2022, Doan has won three races (Liberty Challenge, Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational and ASUN Championships) and lowered the Liberty 5K record to 16:15.1 at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational.
Doan also owns the Liberty 6K standard with her 19:50.6 clocking from last year’s NCAA national meet in Tallahassee, Fla. Her fourth-place showing at the 2021 NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships ranks second in program history to Ednah Kurgat’s regional runner-up effort in 2015.
Doan will try to join her coach, Heather (Sagan) Zealand, as the Lady Flames’ only two-time individual qualifiers to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. Sagan successfully advanced in 2000 and 2001.
Ava Gordon and Kayla Werner will look to continue their outstanding freshman campaigns. They were the top two freshmen at the ASUN meet, with Gordon placing seventh to earn ASUN Freshman of the Year laurels and Werner following closely behind in eighth.
At the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, Gordon (16:34.7) and Werner (16:40.0) notched the two fastest freshman 5K times in program history.
The only two Liberty freshmen ever to earn all-region honors are Samantha Pelletier (18th place in 2001) and Ednah Kurgat (second in 2015). Kurgat was the Lady Flames’ only freshman to advance to the NCAA national championship, and she owns the program’s 6K freshman record of 20:06.7.
Only twice has Liberty boasted multiple all-region performers at this meet. Heather (Sagan) Zealand and Samantha Pelletier did the honors in 2001, while Doan and Adelyn Ackley-Fairley did so last season.
Men’s Team Preview
The Liberty men’s squad finished second at the ASUN Cross Country Championships for the fifth consecutive season, marking the Flames’ 20th consecutive top-two placement at its conference meet.
This week, the Flames will take aim at their first top-10 regional finish since a sixth-place showing in 2018. Liberty placed 11th at this meet in both 2019 and 2021.
Liberty enters Friday’s meet with a No. 11 regional ranking. The Flames are just two spots behind Virginia Tech, who the Flames defeated head-to-head at the Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational earlier this season.
Like the Lady Flames, the Liberty men’s squad will feature a number of new faces from the 2021 regional meet in Louisville. The Flames’ top four finishers from that day are no longer a part of the team, and only Caleb Olson, Kyle Harkabus and Jeremiah Mussmon return to the lineup on Friday.
Men’s Individual Preview
First-year Flame Nicholas Kiprotich has enjoyed an impressive season after transferring from Iowa Western Community College. He opened the year with dominating victories at the Liberty Challenge and Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational.
Most recently, Kiprotich came in third at the ASUN Cross Country Championships in an 8K time of 23:30.8 which ranks No. 4 in program history.
The only Flames who have ever run faster are two-time national champion Sam Chelanga, national champion Josh McDougal and Kiprotich’s fellow Eldoret, Kenya native Azaria Kirwa.
Kirwa was the last Liberty men’s runner to either earn all-region honors or advance to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. He achieved both tasks with a seventh-place finish in 2018.
Friday will mark Kiprotich’s first cross country 10K race. However, he did place third in a track 10K at the 2022 NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Also making his 10K debut will be ASUN Men’s Freshman of the Year Jacob Hess, who earned that distinction with a 28th-place finish at the conference meet.
Jack Cottrell will be yet another Flame contesting the 10K for the first time on Friday. He is coming off the best race of his career, a 13th-place ASUN finish in an 8K personal-best 24:02.1.
Caleb Olson, who finished 21st at the ASUN meet, owns both the best track 10K among the Flames’ entrants (29:14.24) and the best previous regional meet finish (69th in 2021).
