Women's Cross Country | 04/01/21 | 9:55 AM
HELENA, Mont. -- As of Tuesday evening, the Carroll Women's and Men's cross country programs have officially been selected for the NAIA national cross country meet on Friday, April 9th, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The women's team is ranked 17th nationally and the men checked in at 19th in the final poll of the regular season.
The Women's team earned their bid all the way back on November 6th at the Frontier Conference Championship in Havre, Mont. At the conference meet in Havre, the Saints were able to secure the first place finish thanks to four runners in the top ten and the individual champion, Reghan Worley. The Women's conference title landed them an automatic birth to next week's championship.
Fast forward to last week, and the Women's team is still running strong. The race this past Friday served as a tune up heading into the national meet and the Saints will take a lot of momentum from that race heading into the Championship race in Iowa. Coach Flynn cites the lack of team competition as a challenge for the girls at this past race in Billings, but was proud of the performance and believes it bodes well for the Saints moving into the peak of their season.
As for the Men's team, they were not able to secure the automatic bid at the Conference Championship in Havre this past fall, taking second in a tight race to Rocky. Friday's meet in Billings served to be an important race for the Men's team to do their best in controlling their destiny and landing an at-large bid to Nationals.
The Saints responded well with a big win over Rocky, who had a national ranking of 16 at the time, thanks to a strong pack of four freshmen scoring in the Saint's top five. The race in Billings launched the Men's team from 23rd nationally to 19th, and in turn the Saints were granted an at-large bid to the Championship race next weekend.
The 2020 Championships will serve as the first time since 2015 that both Men's and Women's Cross Country teams will be sending full squads to the National Meet.
