Today and tomorrow will see repeat publishings of last week’s regional and national NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Rankings. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association releases these rankings each week throughout the season with the regional rankings coming out each Monday and the national rankings each Tuesday.
The Penn State Women found themselves ranked 22nd in the nation after last weekend’s stellar third place showing at the Big Ten Cross Country Championships at the University of Illinois where front runner Caitlin Lane (pictured left) captured the individual title for the 6k in a time of 19:58. Lane was closely followed by fellow senior Kara Millhouse (7th). Sophomore Emily Giannotti (14th) and juniors Natalie Bower (24th) and Brooklyne Ridder (25th) rounded out the scoring 5 for the lady lions.
The men’s team was ranked as high as top 35 in the nation this season, but the past few weeks have seen them fall out of the national picture. Like the women, they also had a solid performance at Big Tens, but know they could have performed better. Coming in at 6th place in the team standings was not what seniors Kyle Dawson and Vince McNally expected as they discuss in this postrace interview with Flotrack. The two seniors were 11th and 12th places respectively. Senior captain Chris Cipro (40th) and sophomores Tyler Corkedale (50th) and Nick Scarpello (52nd) followed Dawson and McNally.
You can catch a replay of the Big Ten Cross Country Championship meet on Friday November 11 at noon on the Big Ten Network.
This Saturday, both teams will travel to Maryland to compete in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships. The men and women are both ranked 4th in the region. This meet will determine who makes it to the National Championship meet in Terre Haute, Indiana on November 21. To see a breakdown of teams who need to have big performances at their regional meets, check out this “bracketology” of sorts called the Kolas Calculator that Flotrack does during the XC season. Penn State is listed as an at-large team on the women’s side, but is a no-show for the men.
This just makes the meet this weekend all the more important for both Nittany Lion squads. The women’s team has set goals of being top 15 at Nationals, and the men have set the goal of being top 20, but to get there they must first qualify for the meet.
I will be previewing the Mid-Atlantic Regional meet later this week, as well as looking at how other Big Ten teams are shaping up in terms of qualifying for Nationals.
*IMAGE CREDIT: www.womentalksports.com
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