The Ole Miss Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams are set to compete in the NCAA South Regional Championships on Friday, Nov. 15 at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Fla. Ole Miss looks to improve on their times this season and compete for an opportunity to run in the postseason.
Earlier this season, both men’s and women’s teams competed in multiple meets, including the Memphis Twilight race and The Cans Creek Classic. Both teams placed in the top 10 of each race.
The Rebels also competed in the Pre Nationals Meet hosted by the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wis. Ole Miss placed lower than their previous races, with the women placing 33rd and the men placing 25th.
Their most recent competition included The SEC Championships, in which the Rebels finished with strong results in both the men’s and women’s races. The men’s team finished third at the meet, just behind No. 3 Arkansas and No. 11 Alabama.
The men were led by three All-SEC performances in the 8K. Toby Gillen, who ran a 22:41.3, finished as Second-Team All-SEC, and Elyas Ayyoub also earned Second-Team All-SEC honors, running a 23:00.6. Evan Thornton-Sherman ran a 23:04.1 and finished with Third-Team All-SEC Honors.
There were many personal records for the men’s runners, as the top three runners combined for 2 minutes and 34 second improvement. Fifth place runner Gabe Scales also notched a personal record with a 52 second improvement to run a 23:48.0.
The Lady Rebels finished sixth, behind three ranked teams, No. 7 Alabama, No. 14 Florida and No. 28 Texas. Unranked Arkansas and Tennessee also finished ahead of the Rebels. Loral Winn led the way for the Rebels, running a 19:17.5 in the 6K to finish with First-Team All-SEC honors. Winn finished seventh at the meet.
The women also had some major improvements. Madison Hulsey set a personal record by 56 seconds to finish the race at 20:04.9. Beth Arentz set a personal record by 39 seconds and finished with a 20:05.6. Hulsey, Arentz and Sarah Schiffman placed 34th, 35th and 36th, respectively.
As for the NCAA Regionals, the top two teams get automatic bids to the National Championship meet. There are nine regional meets, and in addition to the top-two overall teams earning automatic bids, the first four finishers from each regional meet qualify as at-large teams. A committee then selects 13 at-large teams to compete for the National Championship.
This is a very important meet for obvious reasons. This will be either the last meet for the Rebels this season if they do not receive a bid or act as a stepping stone to compete for a National Championship at the NCAA Championships in Madison, Wis. on Nov. 23.
