GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— Colorado Mesa University will be represented at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships for the first time in six years as redshirt senior Tony Torres and redshirt sophomore Kira MacGill will run as individuals in Friday's races to be contested at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.
 
Torres and MacGill were both selected last Monday by virtue of their individual finishes at the Nov. 19 NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championships in Denver.
 
The men's 10K race will begin at 10 a.m. PST (11 a.m. Mountain) with the women's 6K race to follow at 11:15 a.m. PST (12:15 p.m. Mountain).
 
A live webstream will be available on www.NCAA.com and live results can be accessed here.
 
How they Qualified
 
Both MacGill and Torres were chosen as the second individual finishers on a non-qualifying team from the regional meet.  MacGill finished 14^th at the regional and was the fifth individual finisher outside of the three automatically qualified teams.  However, she moved into the No. 2 spot when Western Colorado and West Texas A&M both received at-large team selections last Monday.
 
The story was similar for Torres, who placed 16^th at the regional.  He was also the fifth individual finisher outside of the three automatic qualifying teams but moved into national qualification position when UCCS and West Texas A&M received at-large team berths.
 
Qualification & All-American History

Torres is the first Maverick man to ever qualify as an individual and joins the 2014 Maverick team, captained by now second-year Head Coach Shane Niksic, as the only CMU men's representatives at the national cross country championships.  The Maverick finished 18^th as a team that year as Michael Nelson finished 52^nd individually as the top Maverick finisher in 2014.
 
The CMU women also qualified as a team in 2014 and have had two previous women qualify as individuals a combined four times.  The last Maverick individual qualifier was Alexia Chapman, who finished 89^th in 2016.
 
Alexis Skarda was a 3-time individual qualifier in 2008, 2010 and 2011, but did not compete in the last of those years due to injury.  She placed eighth in 2010 and 19^th in 2008 and is the only previous all-American in CMU cross country history, having earned two honors.
 
The top 40 individual finishers in this Friday's races will earn all-America honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
 
All-Region History
 
MacGill earned her second straight USTFCCCA All-Region honor thanks to her 14^th place individual finish.  The honors went to the top 25 individual finishers in each of the eight regions from around the country.
 
She joins 3-time performer Alexis Skarda (2008, 2010, 2011) as the only Mavericks to have claimed multiple honors.  Alexia Chapman, Lauren Lipski and Reanna Jereb were all honorees in 2016.
 
Torres, who will cap the cross country portion of his 5-year career on Friday, is the third Maverick man to have ever earned all-region honors, joining 2014 & 2015 honoree Daniel Vavrik and 2021 selection Jerod Kuhn.
 
Last Time Out
 
As a team, the Maverick men finished eighth as a team at the South Central Regional Championships out of 25 teams with 255 points.  Torres was one of three top 40 finishers as Mark Testa and Ethan Abbs finished together in 38^th and 39^th place out of 169 total runners.  The eighth-place finish matched their 2021 placing.  Five schools eventually qualified for the national championships, led by No. 1 ranked and regional champion Colorado School of Mines.
 
Adams State, ranked second in the country coming in, finished seventh as a team and missed out on the national championships for the first time since 1995.
 
The CMU women placed 11^th out of 26 teams with a score of 317 points, their best finish in six years, since placing eighth in 2016. 
 
Kendall White joined MacGill in the top 50, placing 44^th.
 
A national-leading eight teams, including five at-large selections, received national championship bids from the region.
 
Course Familiarity
 
Both MacGill and Torres have had good experience on the national championship course, having run there on Oct. 22 at the NCAA D2 Pre-Nationals Meet, which was also held at Chambers Creek Regional Park.   
 
MacGill finished tenth out of 236 runners with a 6K time of 21:22.4.  Torres was 14^th out of 223 runners in an 8K race. He posted a time of 24:16.0.
 
Championship Experience
 
Although Torres will be making his debut at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships, he has fared quite well in previous performances on the national stage.  In the fall of 2020, Torres won the individual title at NCAA D2 XC National Invitational, a pseudo-replacement for the NCAA Region and National Championships that were not held due to COVID.
 
Torres has also earned a pair of USTFCCCA All-America honors in three previous national championship efforts in track & field.   He took second in the mile at the 2021 indoor championships and then finished third in the 1,500 meters during that year's outdoor season.
 
MacGill will be a newcomer to an official national championship but did qualify as an individual for the 2020 D2 XC National Invitational, where she finished ninth to earn All-Invitational Team honors.
 
Up Next
 
This Friday's race will wrap up the cross country season for the Mavericks.
 
Torres and MacGill will then transition alongside their teammates for the indoor track & field season, which CMU will begin next Friday and Saturday (Dec. 9-10) at the Mountaineer Open & Multi in Gunnison, Colorado.  Most of the CMU distance runners will not race at that season-opening meet.