Friday, November 14
Earlysville, Va.
10:00 AM ET
Liberty University
at
NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships
Allie Zealand poses with her all-region medal following Friday's race.
Zealand Qualifies for NCAA Nationals with 5th-Place Regional Finish
11/14/2025 2:18:00 PM | Cross Country
EARLYSVILLE, Va. – Allie Zealand's exceptional sophomore season will extend for one more week. The Liberty standout placed fifth in the women's 6K at Friday's NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships, successfully advancing to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Nov. 22 in Columbia, Mo. Zealand led the Lady Flames to 10th place in the women's team standings, while the men's squad took 13th at Panorama Farms.
Zealand shattered her own Liberty women's 6K record with a 19:14.3 clocking. That was good for fifth place of 256 women's runners and third among athletes not part of one of the two automatic qualifying teams (NC State and South Carolina), thus punching her ticket to Columbia.
The Lady Flames totaled 276 points for 10th place out of 36 women's teams, marking Liberty's fourth top-10 regional showing in the last five years. No. 2 NC State captured its ninth consecutive regional title with 55 points, while No. 20 South Carolina took second with 100.
On the men's side, Nicholas Kiprotich led the Flames in 40th place during his final collegiate cross country race. Liberty came in 13th of 33 men's squads with a team score of 350. No. 12 Wake Forest (55 points) and No. 30 Eastern Kentucky (68) grabbed the two automatic qualifying berths to Columbia.
Liberty Women's All-Region Finisher
Allie Zealand (5th place)
Race Reactions
The 2025 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will take place on Nov. 22 at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo. Both races will be televised live on ESPNU, beginning with the men's 10K at 10:20 a.m. Eastern. Zealand's women's 6K will follow at 11:10 a.m. Eastern.
The full field of team and individual qualifiers will be announced on NCAA.com Saturday at 5 p.m.
Zealand shattered her own Liberty women's 6K record with a 19:14.3 clocking. That was good for fifth place of 256 women's runners and third among athletes not part of one of the two automatic qualifying teams (NC State and South Carolina), thus punching her ticket to Columbia.
The Lady Flames totaled 276 points for 10th place out of 36 women's teams, marking Liberty's fourth top-10 regional showing in the last five years. No. 2 NC State captured its ninth consecutive regional title with 55 points, while No. 20 South Carolina took second with 100.
On the men's side, Nicholas Kiprotich led the Flames in 40th place during his final collegiate cross country race. Liberty came in 13th of 33 men's squads with a team score of 350. No. 12 Wake Forest (55 points) and No. 30 Eastern Kentucky (68) grabbed the two automatic qualifying berths to Columbia.
Liberty Women's All-Region Finisher
Allie Zealand (5th place)
Race Reactions
- The CUSA champion Lady Flames have now recorded six top-10 regional finishes in program history, four of which have come since 2021.
- Zealand's fifth-place finish was the third-best showing by a Lady Flame in meet history, trailing Ednah Kurgat's runner-up performance in 2015 and Calli Doan's fourth-place effort in fall 2021. Zealand has now placed inside the top five at all six of her races this fall.
- Zealand gives the Lady Flames an NCAA national qualifier for the second year in a row, following Adelyn Fairley in 2024.
- Zealand will compete at her second national championship event this calendar year. She previously qualified to the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the women's 1,500 in June.
- Zealand, who previously earned all-region honors with a 20th-place effort at this meet in 2024, becomes the fifth Lady Flame ever to collect multiple all-region medals in cross country. The group also includes Heather Sagan, Jennifer Klugh, Calli Doan and Adelyn Fairley.
- Zealand's 19:14.3 clocking put her just 11.2 seconds behind regional champion Salma Elbadra of South Carolina and one spot ahead of ACC champion Angelina Napoleon of NC State.
- Zealand shattered her Liberty 6K record of 19:40.4, set at the Pre-National Invitational in Columbia, Mo., on Oct. 17.
- Seniors Katrina Schlenker (47th place, 20:35.3) and Jessica Palisca (57th, 20:43.8) punctuated their collegiate cross country careers with their best-ever regional placements. For Palisca, it was a marked improvement upon her only previous regional effort (141st place in 2023).
- Ryann Aycock was the fastest among the trio of Lady Flames making their regional debuts on Friday, crossing the line 75th overall (fourth on the team) in 21:08.2.
- Kiprotich clocked a 30:33.6 10K for a team-best 40th place of 234 in the men's race, his first visit to Panorama Farms since he raced at the 2023 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships.
- Kiprotich ends his collegiate cross country career as a two-time all-region performer (2022 and 2023).
- Andrew Schultz continued his breakthrough sophomore campaign as the Flames' No. 2 finisher, placing 58th in a personal-best 30:59.9. He came in 108th at this meet a year ago as a freshman.
- The remainder of the Flames' top five finishers were making their first NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships appearances on Friday, including Edwin Kiprop (75th, 31:19.3), Ethan Pedersen (83rd, 31:31.0) and Eli Julian (94th, 31:47.9). Julian was the 20th-fastest freshman on the day in Earlysville.
The 2025 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will take place on Nov. 22 at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo. Both races will be televised live on ESPNU, beginning with the men's 10K at 10:20 a.m. Eastern. Zealand's women's 6K will follow at 11:10 a.m. Eastern.
The full field of team and individual qualifiers will be announced on NCAA.com Saturday at 5 p.m.
Players Mentioned
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