11/7/2012 6:02:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
The North Dakota State men's cross country team will travel to Springfield, Mo., this week to compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional meet hosted by Missouri State University on Friday, Nov. 9. The men's 10k race will start at 1:15 p.m. at the MSU Cross Country Course, following the completion of the women's event.
The top two finishing teams will receive automatic bids to the NCAA Championship Nov. 17 in Louisville, Ky. The third- and fourth-place finishing teams will likely earn at-large berths, to be announced Saturday by the NCAA. Additionally, the top four individual finishers from non-qualified teams will advance to the NCAA meet.
The Bison placed 15th as a team at the Midwest Regional a year ago when the meet was hosted in DeKalb, Ill. Senior Travis Fitzke placed 47th overall out of 171 runners to lead NDSU in 2011.
North Dakota State will enter six men in the meet Friday, including junior Moses Heppner, sophomores Brett Kelly, Grady Anderson and Lucas DeGree, redshirt freshman Brendan Skime and true freshman Bryon Schuldt.
Anderson (109th place), Heppner (124th) and Kelly (127th) all return with experience after competing in the regional last season.
Kelly has been NDSU's top finisher at each of the last three meets, culminating with a 20th-place finish at the Summit League Championships on Oct. 27.
As one of nine NCAA Division I regional sites, Springfield will host programs from 10 conferences including the Atlantic 10, Big 12, BIG EAST, Big Ten, Conference USA, Great West, Horizon League, Mid-American, Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley and Summit League. Those 10 conferences span across nine different states (Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota).
Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Illinois and Missouri are currently the top five teams in the Midwest in the USTFCCCA rankings.
