Rams Head to Albuquerque for NCAA Mountain Regional

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Sep 20

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at Roadrunners Invite

Oct 3

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at Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite

Oct 10

Men 9:00 a.m. / Women 9:45 a.m.

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at UCCS XC Open

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Cross Country

at Mountain West Championships

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Coming off an extraordinarily successful Mountain West Championship performance, the Colorado State cross country program is looking to keep its momentum going as the Rams head to Albuquerque, N.M., to partake in the NCAA Mountain Regional on Friday morning.

The women will start the day with a 6K starting at 11:00 a.m., MT. Shortly after, the men will run a 10K at 12:00 p.m., MT.

"Both teams are coming off great conference meet performances and will look to ride the momentum into Friday's Mountain Regional," said head cross country coach Andrew Epperson. "The men and women know what they need to do in order to advance to the NCAA National Championships next Saturday and are set up well for success."

Both the men's and women's teams were consistent during the fall and doing so has led both to be ranked in the USTFCCCA National Polls. The men's team currently sits 28th and has held that position for the past two weeks. The women's team is ranked 20th and has yet to fall out of the national rankings all season.

These rankings are no surprise after the Mountain West meet as both teams finished second and earned a combined nine All-Mountain West honors. The men received a program-record six all-conference honors and the women totaled three. The Rams were led by Lily Tomasula-Martin and Thomas Chaston who first crossed the finish line with respective times of 20:09.6 (women) and 23:41.6 (men).

Once again, the Mountain Regional holds the most number of ranked teams out of the nine regions – seven on the women's side and six on the men's. Both squads will have their work cut out, racing against five Top-10 teams in the women's and three on the men's.

This is the second time in school history in which both teams head to the regional while being nationally ranked, and both teams are looking for improvement from last year's race, where the women finished fourth and the men ninth.

On the women's side, last year's Mountain Regional had Lily Tomasula-Martin finishing 16th, Annabel Stafford 22nd, Claudia Burgess 28th, Ashlyn Hillyard 31st and Emily Chaston 42nd. The men saw Mason Brown finish 36th, Brock Dykema 42nd, Dawson Besst 59th and Thomas Chaston 84th – all of which will run again this Friday.

This experience in the NCAA Mountain Regional is beneficial in the Ram's pursuit of success, and something they plan to utilize.

"The women had their best meet of the season in Laramie and have been full of confidence all fall," added Epperson. "Their leadership and experience will be a major factor on Friday when the gun goes off. The men have continued to improve every meet; it is great to see their hard work come together during the most important part of the season. Their goal is simple, focus on a strong second half and beat the two teams we need to beat, man-for-man."

The top-2 teams per gender in each region automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships, while the other teams will be at-large selections during an NCAA Selection Show on Saturday at 5 p.m., ET. In total 31 teams make the national meet and with nine regions, that leaves 13 at-large bids to give away. Then, after teams have been determined, 40 additional individuals per gender are selected to compete based on finish at their respective regional championships (38 are automatic selections; two are at-large).

USTFCCA Mountain Region (Women)
Team (National Ranking)
1. New Mexico (2)
2. Northern Arizona (4)
3. BYU (6)
4. Colorado (8)
5. Utah (9)
6. Colorado State (20)
7. Utah Valley (27)
8. Utah State
9. Wyoming
10. Air Force
11. Montana State
12. Weber State
13. New Mexico State
14. Southern Utah
15. Nevada

USTFCCCA Mountain Region (Men)
Team (National Ranking)
1. BYU (2)
2. Northern Arizona (3)
3. Air Force (5)
4. Colorado (9)
5. Montana State (21)
6. Colorado State (28)
7. Utah State
8. Southern Utah
9. Utah Valley
10. Wyoming
11. Weber State
12. New Mexico
13. UTEP
14. Nevada
15. Texas Tech

Men's Roster: Dawson Besst, Mason Brown, Thomas Chaston, Brock Dykema, Lars Mitchel, Michael Mooney, Tom Oates
Women's Roster: Claudia Burgess, Sarah Carter, Emily Chaston, Ashlyn Hillyard, Lauren Neugeboren, Annabel Stafford, Lily Tomasula-Martin

MEET INFO:
NCAA Mountain Regional Headquarters: https://csura.ms/3G2TwvP
Live Results: https://csura.ms/3Umbgqo
Date: Friday, Nov. 11, 2022
Location: UNM North Golf Course
2201 Tucker Ave NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131
Starting Times: 11 AM MT – Women's 6K Race / 12 PM MT – Men's 10K
Scoring: Seven entries per school with all having the ability to score

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