GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University cross country teams will look to qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championships when they continue their season on Saturday at the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championships at Washington Park in Denver.
 
MSU Denver will host the races.
 
The men's 10-kilometer event will begin at 2 p.m. while the women's 6K race will follow at 3:15 p.m. (UPDATED TIMES)
 
Course maps and other pertinent information can be accessed through the meet information page.
 
Live results can be found here.
 
Up to 30 women's and 28 men's teams from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and Lone Star Conferences are expected to compete in what is typically the deepest of eight regional meets to be held around this country this Saturday.
 
What it will take as a team
 
The top three finishing teams in each race will automatically qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championships.  However, the South Central Region has also typically received multiple at-large selections based on the strength of the region.  Ten total at-large bids will be handed out.
 
The Maverick women have a strong shot at qualifying for the NCAA Championships as a team for what would be the first time in a decade and just the second time in program history (2014).
 
In 2023, nine men's and nine women's squads from the region qualified for the NCAA Championships, with five men's teams finishing amongst the top eight while four women's teams finished within the top six at the national championships.
 
In 2022, eight women's and five men's teams represented the region at the NCAA Division II Championships, while sweeping the national team titles.
 
In 2021, five RMAC and six men's teams from the region were selected as a team for that year's NCAA Division II National Championships.
 
In 2019, a total of six South Central Region men's teams, including three "at-large" squads and four total women's squads qualified for the national championships.
 
The 2020 championships were not contested due to COVID.
 
The ten "at large" berths will then be awarded by the NCAA Division II Men's & Women's Cross Country Committee using the selection criteria, explained in Appendix B of the NCAA Pre-Championship Manual.
 
It is important to note that at-large teams will be selected based on regional place order and that a team cannot be selected ahead of a team that placed in front of them at their respective regional championship meet, making every position in Saturday's results of critical importance.
 
CMU's lone competition against out of region teams from this season came at the Oct. 12 Lewis Crossover.  The Maverick women finished 10^th out of 36 teams and have head-to-head wins over 25 different out of region teams compared to just seven losses from that meet.  Thus, the Mavs will hope that most of those seven teams will finish amongst the top three at their respective regionals, which would open up the door more widely for a potential "at large" selection if they are not able to finish in the top three at Saturday's meet.
 
The Maverick men placed 33^rd out of 36 teams at the Lewis meet and will almost certainly need a top three team finish on Saturday to qualify for the national championships.
 
Individual Qualifiers
 
In addition to the 34 qualifying teams, a minimum of 24 men and 24 women will qualify for the NCAA Division II National Championships as individuals.  The top two individuals from non-qualifying teams at each of the eight regionals will be selected as will any other individuals who finish amongst the top five runners of their regional race.
 
Additionally, eight other individuals will be selected at-large using similar criteria as the at-large team selections.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks began the championship portion of the season on Oct. 26 at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
 
The Maverick women ran to a strong seventh place team finish, which matched their 2023 finish.  The Maverick men took eighth, four spots better than in 2023 (12^th) and two spots higher than they were picked (10^th) in the RMAC's Preseason Poll.  CMU's women also finished two spots higher than they were predicted (9^th) in the preseason poll.
 
Maverick redshirt senior Kirstin Williams earned her second consecutive All-RMAC honor, placing 20^th overall with a time of 21:06.2 on what ended up being a 5.8-kilometer course.  Five other Maverick women all finished within 18 seconds of one another and all placed between 31^st and 40^th as the Mavericks put six runners inside the top 40 en route to a team score of 158 points.
 
The Maverick men were paced by redshirt sophomore Drexel Cox, who finished the 8K course in a time of 25:45.9 to place 44^th.  The Mavericks had a 5-man pack time of just 52.3 seconds and scored 256 team points.
 
For complete meet recaps, click here (WOMEN  -  MEN)..
 
A look at the lineup
 
Teams are permitted to send seven runners to the start in each of Saturday's regional championships.  The top five runners will determine each team's score while the sixth and seventh runners will displace runners from other teams, thus hurting opposing teams' scores. 
 
Maverick Head Coach Travis Floeck plans to race his full allotment of runners and will bring eight men and eight women, including alternates, on the trip.  He has not yet finalized the 7-person lineup.
 
Nine (six women, three men) of the slated 16 possible Maverick runners have competed at previous regional championships.
 
The men's lineup (in alphabetical order) includes Jackson Baker, Chase Brown, Quintin Collins, Drexel Cox, Triston Charles, Kevin DeGree, Gustavo Rivera and Ryan O'Loughlin.
 
The women's lineup includes Quin Gregg, Megan Hodges, Kate Linstedt, Brooke Miller, Autumn McQuitty, Shirley Weaver, Kendall White and Kirstin Williams
 
DeGree finished 85^th at last year's regional championships as the Mavs' No. 2 runner and took 63^rd as the Mavs' fourth finisher as a redshirt freshman in 2022.  That race was also held at Washington Park in Denver.  Chase Brown (94^th) and Drexel Cox (130^th) also ran at last year's regional.  Triston Charles also ran at last year's regional but did not finish after battling through injuries last fall.  He took 99^th as the Mavs' fifth runner in 2022 and was 48^th at the 2021 regional.
 
Williams was the Mavs' top finisher in last year's women's regional and successfully qualified as an individual for the national championships.  She placed 23^rd last year.
 
Megan Hodges (41^st), Lauren Hodges (67^th), Autumn McQuitty (76^th), Kate Linstedt (81^st) and Kendall White (90^th) also return to the potential regional lineup as each of the top six finishers from last year's regional could run again on Saturday.  White, who took 44^th as the Mavs' second finisher in 2022 and Megan Hodges, who finished 99^th as the Mavs' fifth runner last year, could make their third straight appearances.
 
National Rankings
 
The Maverick women will enter a regional championship as a nationally-ranked team for the first time since 2009.  They are ranked 29^th in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Coaches Poll, released last Wednesday (Oct. 30).  They were ranked 28^th heading into the RMAC Championships after being listed in the others receiving votes category for the previous three weeks before moving into the top 30 poll after a strong tenth place finish at the Lewis Crossover Invitational.
 
Prior to recent rankings, CMU's last national ranking at any point in a season was in 2015 when the Mavericks were ranked 11^th in the preseason and Week No. 1 edition of that year's rankings, largely because of their 2014 season efforts, when CMU qualified as a team for the NCAA Championships.
 
They were receiving votes heading into the 2014 regional and then were ranked 23^rd heading into that year's national championships after a successful regional championship effort.  The Mavs finished 22nd at the 2014 NCAA Championships.
 
CMU's women also moved up five spots to 17^th in the FloTrack College XC NCAA Division II Rankings presented by HOKA, which were most recently published on Tuesday.  Those rankings are done on a more mathematical and head-to-head result basis using a modified ELO system ranking.
 
The Mavericks also have two women in the top 100 of the FloTrack individual rankings in No. 62 Brooke Miller and No. 72 Kirstin Williams and have the maximum seven permitted individuals in the top 180.  Miller, who did not run at the RMAC Championships, is down one spot with an ELO score of 5,222 while Williams moved down six spots to and now has an ELO score of 5,215.
 
Kendall White (131^st), Quin Gregg (144^th), Megan Hodges (159^th), Kate Linstedt (165^th) and Shirley Waver (180^th) are the other ranked Maverick women.
 
Regional Ranking
 
CMU's women also remained in the No. 10 spot of the USTFCCCA's Regional Rankings, released on Oct. 29.  Those rankings only had minimal changes after the Lone Star and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship meets held on the previous weekend.
 
Adams State, CSU Pueblo and the Colorado School of Mines remained in the top three spots while West Texas A&M moved up a spot after winning the Lone Star Conference title.  Mines was just sixth at the RMAC Championships but is still ranked ahead of UCCS Colorado Springs and Western Colorado, who took third and fourth at the conference meet.  UCCS is now up a spot to fifth in the regional rankings while Western dropped two spots to sixth.  Fort Lewis, which took fifth at the RMAC Championships, is still ranked seventh while Colorado Christian, which did not send all of their top runners to the RMAC Championships, is ranked eighth.  The Cougars finished 11^th at the RMAC Championships.
 
Dallas Baptist, which took second behind West Texas A&M at the Lone Star Championships, is still ranked ninth in the slot ahead of the Mavs.
 
Back-to-back
 
CMU redshirt senior Kirstin Williams claimed her second consecutive All-RMAC honor at the RMAC Championships, becoming just the fifth Maverick woman to ever earn two all-conference honors.  She earned second team accolades this year, plaudits that go to the 15^th-28^th place individual finishers at the conference championships.  The St. George, Utah native finished 13^th at the 2023 RMAC Championships, earning first team honors, which go to the top 14 individual finishers.
 
Teammate Kira MacGill (2020-22), who has not run this season due to injury, and Alexis Skarda (2008-10) are the only Maverick women to have ever earned three total and three straight honors.  Christie Darvas (1991-92) and Esmeralda Martinez-Ramos (2008-09) are the only other CMU women to have multiple all-conference honors.
 
First Time Leader
 
Maverick redshirt sophomore Drexel Cox led the CMU squad for the first time in his career at the RMAC Championships.  He took 44^th overall with a personal-best 8K time of 25:45.9 in what was his fourth race of this season and the eighth while representing the Mavericks in his career.
 
Packing it In
 
Both Maverick squads had some strong low pack times at the RMAC Championships.  Although Kirstin Williams finished 34.5 seconds ahead of any of her teammates, the next five Maverick women all finished within 18 seconds of another and between 31^st-40^th place.
 
The Maverick men had had strong 5-man pack time of 52.7 seconds as all five scorers placed between 44^th and 75^th.
 
Stepping Up the Distance
 
The men's regional and national championship races are contested over ten kilometers.  CMU's previous four meets were all contested on 8K courses.  The NCAA regional and national championships on the women's side are run on 6K courses, which the Mavs are used to after running that distance at their last three meets.  CMU's first women's meet, the Mountaineer/Cowboy Invite, was a 5K race.
 
Course Familiarity
 
Saturday's race will mark the second time that the Mavericks will run at Washington Park this season.  They fared well in their previous outing there, placing fourth (women's) and fifth (men's) at the Roadrunners Invitational on Sept. 21.  Brooke Miller (18^th) and Kevin DeGree (33^rd) were the Mavs' top finishers on that day.  To view a recap of that day, click here.
 
Regional History
 
The Mavericks' best regional championship finish to date came in 2014 when the Maverick men finished sixth to earn their first and only national meet appearance as a team in program history thus far.  The Maverick men also finished seventh in 2015 and 2016 and took eighth in 2021 and 2022.
 
The Maverick women also matched best-ever regional finish in 2014, when they also finished sixth to earn their first and thus far only team appearance at the national championships.  The 2008 team had also finished sixth at the Central Region meet.
 
The Maverick women took tenth last year, their best finish since 2016.
 
The Mavericks also qualified women's individuals for each of the past two championships.  Kira MacGill went on to earn all-America honors in 2022 and Kirstin Williams qualified last year, finishing 61^st at the national meet.
 
They were the first Maverick women to qualify since 2016, when Alexia Chapman qualified as an individual.
 
Alexis Skarda also qualified as an individual for three NCAA Championships in 2008, 2010 and 2011.
 
Tony Torres qualified as a men's individual in 2022.
 
Region Honors
 
In addition to running for the NCAA qualification spots, runners in Saturday's races will be attempting to earn all-region honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.  The organization will recognize the top 25 individual finishers in each race at each of the eight regional championships with all-region honors, which will be officially announced next week.
 
Nine previous Mavericks have combined to win 13 combined all-region honors.  Kirstin Williams did so last year, taking 23^rd at the regional.
 
Current Maverick Kira MacGill, who has not run this season, was an all-region performer in both 2021 and 2022 while Tony Torres was the last Maverick man to do so in 2022.
 
Alexis Skarda is the program's only 3-year all-region performer (2008, 2010, 2011) while Daniel Vavrik is the only men's 2-time honoree (2014, 2015).
 
Meanwhile, Alexia Chapman, Lauren Lipski and Reanna Jereb all earned the plaudits in 2016 in the only previous year in program history has been that the Mavs women have had multiple selections.
 
Deep Region
 
The South Central Region is typically the deepest of the eight from around the country and is no different this year.  Ten different women's teams from the region, including the Mavs, are included in the USTFCCCA's National Coaches Poll.  That list includes three of the top four, five of the top nine and six of the top 11.  RMAC Champion Adams State leads the list in the top spot of the poll while CSU Pueblo and the Colorado School of Mines are ranked third and fourth, respectively.
 
West Texas A&M is ranked sixth while UCCS is ninth.  No. 11 Western Colorado, No. 15 Fort Lewis, No. 17 Colorado Christian, No. 27 Dallas Baptist and the 29^th ranked Mavs will all toe the line on Saturday morning as well.
 
The Central Region has eight nationally ranked women's teams but only one in the top 10 in eighth-ranked Augustana.  The West Region has six ranked squads.
 
The men's regional field is nearly as deep with seven nationally-ranked teams, including four squads ranked in the top 7 of the national poll, led by RMAC Champion and No. 2 ranked Colorado School of Mines.  No. 3 West Texas A&M, No. 5 Adams State and No. 7 Western Colorado could also contend for the regional title.  No. 13 Colorado Christian, No. 15 CSU Pueblo and No. 16 UCCS are all nationally ranked as well.
 
The Midwest and West Regions have six nationally ranked men's teams while the Central Region has five.
 
The Adams State women and Mines men are the defending regional champions.
 
Up Next
 
If the Mavericks do not automatically qualify as a team or individual runners for the national championships, they will await Monday's official selection announcement, which will be posted on NCAA.com on Monday (Nov. 11), to see if they will continue their season at the NCAA Division II National Championships on Nov. 23 in Sacramento, California.