• Complete Regional Coverage by USTFCCCA | All-Region Honorees
Ohio Valley Conference teams competed in three NCAA Cross Country Regionals on Friday.
The Eastern Kentucky men's team finished fourth at the NCAA Southeast Regional held in Louisville, Kentucky. The Colonels entered the event ranked No. 5 in the region but outscored No. 2 ranked N.C. State to keep its hopes of an at-large berth for the National Championship alive.
EKU, who has qualified for the NCAA Championship in each of the last three seasons, will officially find out if it is one of 13 at-large selections to the National Championship on Saturday after. Track website
FLOTrack.com projects the Colonels to be the final at-large team to be selected to the field.
The last OVC team to qualify for four-straight NCAA Championships was East Tennessee State who qualified for eight-straight from 1970-77.
The National Championship is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Eastern Kentucky was led by senior
Ole Hesselbjerg, who had not been the team’s top runner at any race this season. The steeplechase All-American rose to the occasion in another big race, though, as he finished fifth out of 231 runners with a 10K time of 30:19.0. Junior
Amos Kosgey and sophomore
Ambrose Maritim rounded out Eastern’s strong top-three at the meet. Kosgey placed 10th in 30:26.8 while Maritim was 16th in 30:35.8. Hesselbjerg, Kosgey and Maritim all earned NCAA All-Southeast Region honors following the meet.
Belmont's
Marcus Bridger-Wilkinson and Tennessee Tech's
Geoffrey Sambu also earned All-Region honors for the men's teams.
On the women's side Belmont's
Hannah Wittman and Eastern Kentucky's
Ann Eason earned All-Region honors.
Southeast Region Meet (Louisville, Ky.)
Men's Teams
4. Eastern Kentucky (Ole Hesselbjerg, 30:19.0 - 5th)
20. Morehead State (Gary Monroe, 32:11.2 - 98th)
27. Murray State (Cole Cisneros, 33:18.5 - 151st)
Women's Teams
7. Eastern Kentucky (Ann Eason, 20:43.8 - 16th)
24. Morehead State (Alex Morris, 22:07.3 - 91st)
28. Murray State (Caroline Grogan, 22:28.6 - 122nd)
South Region Meet (Tallahassee, Fla.)
Men's Teams
7. Belmont (Marcus Bridger-Wilkinson, 30:57.20 - 16th)
NTS. Tennessee Tech (Geoffrey Sambu, 30:51.60 - 13th)
NTS. UT Martin (Justin Morgan, 32:16.20 - 81st)
NTS. Jacksonville State (Mickey Sanders, 34:23.20 - 142nd)
Women's Teams
15. Belmont (Hannah Wittman, 20:18.40 - 15th)
29. Jacksonville State (Ju-ells McLeod, 22:48.10 - 165th)
NTS. UT Martin (Hayley Doty, 23:21.00 - 180th)
Midwest Region Meet (Peoria, Ill.)
Men's Teams
21. Eastern Illinois (Derrick Johnson, 31:36.7 - 100th)
22. SIUE (Clint Kliem, 31:34.0 - 97th)
28. Southeast Missouri (Nathan Cook, 32:20.5 - 137th)
Women's Teams
27. Eastern Illinois (Emily Brelsfoard, 21:30.5 - 76th)
28. Southeast Missouri (Gloria Westlake, 21:30.9 - 78th)
32. SIUE (Conradette King, 22:31.6 - 169th)