By Karen Garcia |
The men’s cross country team took second place at the NCAA West Regional meet on Nov. 14, earning the team a bid to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 22. The women finished 7th overall, led by senior Tansey Lystad, who finished 6th individually and earned an individual qualification into the Championships.
This is the first time since 2007 that both teams will be represented in the race. The men will be trying to best their 7th-place finish last year.
The men’s team finished with a time of 2:29:26 as senior Scott Fauble led the team with a time of 29:40. Seniors William Kincaid and Reid Buchanan followed Fauble, ranking 9th and 10th overall.
Senior David Perry is proud of the team’s performance and championship bid.“We had beaten so many good teams earlier in the year so it wasn’t a shoo-in, we still had to be there and be competitive, but we didn’t have too much stress,” Perry said. “We beat Stanford, who took 3rd, and it was Stanford’s home course. It’s really good to beat them, to beat such a prestigious school, because with that comes a lot of hype and we like to be one of the teams that are hyped.”
The women’s team finished with a time of 1:45:52 and Lystad finished with a time of 5:24. Junior Anne Luijten and senior Julia Fonk came in 2nd and 3rd place for the Pilots and 34th and 50th places overall.
UP Athletics is hosting a viewing party for the race which starts at 9 a.m. Saturday in the Hall of Fame room in the Chiles Center.
