GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University women's cross country team will make their second straight and third full team appearance and will be looking for their best ever finish at the NCAA Division II National Championships, when the Mavericks run this Saturday morning in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
 
The women's 6,000-meter race will begin at 10 a.m. CST (9 a.m. Mountain) at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course.  The men's 10K race follows at 11:15 a.m. CST.
 
Both can be streamed for free on NCAA.com and live results can be found here.
 
More information about the meet, including course descriptions and maps can be seen on the championship microsite.
 
Last Time Out
 
The Mavericks earned their trip to the national championships after recording a seventh place finish at the Nov. 8 NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championships in Pueblo, Colorado.  The effort was the Mavs' best regional finish since 2014 and was fueled by an 11^th place finish from redshirt senior Megan Hodges along with a strong pack time.
 
The Mavs' second through fifth runners all finished within six positions and 12.3 seconds of one another between 47^th and 52^nd place.
 
A full meet recap can be seen here.
 
NCAA History
 
As mentioned in the open, the Mavericks will be making just their third full team appearance at the national championships.  They took 22^nd in 2014 in Louisville, Kentucky and then went ten years before making another appearance last year.  The Mavs took 23^rd a year ago in Sacramento, California.

However, the Mavericks will also be represented for the fourth straight year after qualifying individuals in both 2022 and 2023.
 
The Mavs also qualified a single woman for the 2018, 2010, 2011 and 2016 national championships.  Alexis Skarda was a 3-time individual qualifier in 2008, 2010 and 2011, but did not run at the 2011 national championship.  Her eighth place national finish in 2010 is the Mavs' all-time best.  Alexia Chapman qualified as an individual in 2016 before Kira MacGill and Kirstin Williams did so in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
 
A look at the lineup and national experience
 
Second year Maverick Head Coach Travis Floeck has selected eight women to take on the trip to Wisconsin, seven of which will run in Saturday's race.  The list (in alphabetical order) includes Quin Gregg, Lauren Hodges, Megan Hodges, Wehazit Kelati, Daisy Lalonde, Kate Linstedt, Autumn McQuitty and Jordan Staniszewski.
 
All but Linstedt, who was also the Mavs' alternate at the South Central Regional, ran two weeks ago.
 
Four of those women ran at last year's national meet.
 
Megan Hodges was the Mavs' second runner and placed 85^th overall.  Gregg, was the Mavs' fifth scorer and placed 169^th.  McQuitty and Linstedt finished 186^th and 196^th, respectively.

Last year's meet recap can be seen here.
 
Gunning for Honors
 
In addition to their team aspirations of improving upon their 22^nd place finish from 2014, the Maverick runners will also aim for USTFCCCA All-America honors that will go to the top 40 individual finishers in Saturday's race.
 
If any are able to earn the plaudits, they would join elite company as only two Maverick women have combined to win three All-America cross country honors previously.  Alexis Skarda finished 19^th at the 2008 National Championships and placed eighth in 2010 as the program's highest national finisher and only 2-time All-American.  Current Maverick Kira MacGill, who only ran once this season after missing the past two years due to injury, is the Mavs' only other all-American.  She placed 29^th at the 2022 National Championships after qualifying for that year's championship as an individual.
 
Going for the triple
 
Megan Hodges, who has led the Mavs in all five meets this year, will also be aiming to complete the trio of post-season awards.  She took 11^th at the regional championship meet to earn USTFCCCA All-Region honors after finishing 13^th at the RMAC Championships to claim First Team All-RMAC honors.
 
If she is able to finish amongst the top 40 runners, she would become just the third Maverick to complete the awards trio joining Skarda and MacGill.  Skarda did it both in 2008 and 2010.  MacGill was an all-region pick and earned Second Team All-RMAC honors in 2022.
 
Hodges' 11^th place finish at this year's regional championship was the Mavs' best since 2016, when Alexia Chapman also finished 11^th to earn individual qualification into the national championships.
 
Twin PR's
 
Megan Hodges and her twin sister Lauren Hodges both set 8K personal-record times at the regional championships.  Megan Hodges turned in a time of 21:12.7, shaving 19 seconds off her RMAC Championship time of 21:31.7, which had been the best of her career.
 
Lauren Hodges finished in 22:32.2, four seconds quicker than her former PR from the 2024 RMAC Championships.
 
Quin Gregg and Autumn McQuitty also ran season-best times of 22:26.3 and 22:32.2, respectively.
 
In the Polls
 
The Mavericks will enter the national championships ranked 20^th in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's NCAA Division II Coaches Poll.
 
The Mavs were ranked 15^th before the regional championships and have been ranked in all eight editions of the poll, including the preseason rankings.  They were ranked as high as No. 14 in the Week No. 5 poll, their highest rank in more than a decade.
 
The Mavs have been included in the poll for 11 straight editions dating back to 2024 after receiving votes in the previous three polls.
 
The RMAC has four of the top five teams in the latest national poll with Adams State moving up four spots to second after winning the South Central Regional title behind only Grand Valley State of Allendale, Michigan.  The Colorado School of Mines, which won the RMAC Championship, is now ranked third.  UCCS, which took second at both the conference and regional meets is ranked fourth while Western Colorado rose three spots to a season-best fifth in the latest poll.
 
West Texas A&M, which finished fifth at the regional meet, is ranked sixth.
 
CSU Pueblo is ranked 17^th in the national poll and surged up nine spots after a sixth place regional finish.  Fort Lewis is now ranked 22^nd.
 
Battle Tested
 
The Mavericks are certainly battle tested this season having competed at the Lewis Crossover Invitation, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships and the South Central Regional Championships in their last three outings.
 
The Mavs took fourth out of 36 teams at the Lewis meet on Oct. 11 in Romeoville, Illinois, just out of Chicago.  That effort proved to be quite beneficial as the Mavs racked up multiple wins over other teams in consideration for the at-large spots in the national championships.  They also defeated six nationally-ranked teams at the time, four of whom were ranked ahead of them at the time.
 
That effort allowed the Mavs to move up 14 spots to 14^th in the ensuing national poll.
 
The Mavs then turned in a sixth place finish at the RMAC Championships on Oct. 25 in Colorado Springs, their highest conference finish in 11 years.  The Mavs were one of seven nationally-ranked teams from the conference and finished higher than No. 19 ranked CSU Pueblo.
 
In addition, the Mavs were one of eight nationally-ranked teams at the regional, which was the deepest of the eight in the country.  They defeated No. 23 ranked Fort Lewis.
 
The South Central Region ended up with eight spots in the national meet, three more than any other region and has five of the six highest ranked teams heading into the national championships.
 
Up Next
 
Saturday's race will conclude the cross country season.  The Mavericks will then begin the indoor track & field season on the weekend of Dec. 5-6.