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COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas cross country team will be back on the course Friday morning, traveling to College Station to compete in the NCAA South Central Regional Meet at Watts Cross Country Course.
The girls will start at 9am and compete in the 6k, followed by the boys in the 10k at 10am.
Friday’s competition will be fiercely competitive with two team spots to the NCAA Championships on the line.
The men’s team is aiming for its 15th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, excluding the 2020 season when Co-VID canceled the tournament. The women’s team is aiming to return to championships for the first time since 2022 and for the first time under women’s distance coach Sarah Smith.
In its last appearance, the men’s team finished fourth at the SEC Championship with 152 points. After finishing seventh overall, the Longhorn boys were led by Isaac Alonzo, who ran a personal best of 40 seconds in the 8K. On the women’s side, Eva Jess set a personal best time of 22 seconds for the 6K and finished first at UT with a 12th place finish.
The top two teams out of the country’s nine regional teams earn an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships. The top four teams in the region that are not auto-qualifying teams or from the general team also secure an automatic bid to the championship. If a team is unable to secure an automatic bid, it must rely on the NCAA committee to be selected as one of 13 at-large teams.
You can check the results of tomorrow’s regional competition in the latest news.
