DENVER— Colorado Mesa University redshirt sophomore Kira MacGill earned her second consecutive all-region honor and earned a respectable chance at a potential NCAA Division II Championship berth as an individual while leading the Maverick women's cross country team to their best regional team finish in six years on Saturday afternoon here at the South Central Regional Championships.
 
MacGill finished 14^th individually with a 6-kilometer time of 22 minutes, 2.6 seconds as the Mavericks placed 11^th as a team with a score of 317 points, matching the 2016 team's finish.
 
The top 25 individual finishers are named as all-region performers by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association while the top two individual finishers not on selected teams will head to University Place, Washington for the Dec. 2 national championships.
 
MacGill, who placed 20th at last year's regional championships, is currently fifth on that list but would move into second if both Western Colorado and West Texas A&M receive at-large team selections on Monday afternoon, a distinct possibility considering the region is typically regarded as the deepest of the eight from around the country.
 
Adams State, the defending national champions, won Saturday's team title by just five points (67-72) over the Colorado School of Mines and will be joined by UCCS, which finished third with 84 points as the three automatic qualifying teams for the national championships, all of whom were ranked in the top four of the latest USTFCCCA National Poll.
 
CSU Pueblo, ranked 16^th nationally coming in, will be the first team from the region in line for one of the ten at-large team qualification spots after taking fourth with 106 points, while Western Colorado, ranked tenth in the poll, finished fifth with 127.
 
West Texas A&M was sixth with 175 after coming into the day ranked 24^th nationally and seventh in the region.  If the Lady Buffs are not selected for nationals as a team, they will be represented by Florance Uwajeneza and Eleonora Curtabbi, who were the top two individual finishers.
 
Western's Katie Doucette is also guaranteed of at least an individual spot after taking fifth in 21:28.6 behind UCCS' Layla Almasri (21:20.7).
 
Adams State and Mines then split the next five individual finishes.
 
Even if her team is not selected, Western's Allison Beasley has s good chance of qualifying individually after placing tenth in 21:51.0. 

If both Western and West Texas A&M are selected as a team, Fort Lewis junior Katie Fankhouser (11^th, 21:51.7) and MacGill would receive the two qualifying spots.  They could also possibly earn one of the eight at-large individual spots from around the country as well.
 
Although MacGill's performance was the best of the day, the Mavericks have plenty to be proud of as a team as redshirt freshman Kendall White took 44^th in 23:02.7 while all five of CMU's scoring runners finished in the top 100 of the 174-runner field.
 
Sophomore Alyssa Britton was third on the team and 66^th overall in 23:48.3 while Ricky Maestas placed 94^th with a time of 24:46.9.  Redshirt freshman Megan Hodges took 99^th in 24:54.6.
 
Jessie Beck (10^th, 25:23.1) and Arianna Kincaid (145^th, 26:55.5) also represented the Mavs.
 
The Maverick men, who raced earlier in the day, finished eighth as a team while Tony Torres finished 16^th to earn a USTFCCCA All-Region honor while putting himself on the bubble for an individual spot if the Mavs do not receive an at-large team berth.