The road to the NCAA Championships reaches its decisive stage this Friday as nine regional championships take place across the United States, with a strong Irish presence scattered from Alabama to California.
Each region will send its top two teams automatically to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, with a further fourteen teams chosen at-large based on season performance. Thirty-eight individual athletes will also advance, including the top four finishers not already on qualifying teams. With only seven athletes allowed to start per team, several of the Irish runners listed below will be competing for one of those elusive scoring slots.
Irish representation spans seven of the nine regions, with many familiar names from the autumn collegiate season looking to secure places at the national finals.
Mid-Atlantic Region
Seán Donoghue and Jack Fenlon are in action for Villanova in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Goodman Course will test even the most seasoned runners, with both Villanova teams chasing automatic qualification.
Midwest Region
Tulsa’s duo of Sarah Hosey and Shay McEvoy make up in a strong field at the OSU Cross Country Course. in Stillwater, Oklahoma. They’re joined by Loyola’s Roisin Treacy and Nebraska’s Alexandra Joyce, all hoping to steer their squads into contention for at-large selection.
Northeast Region
A large Irish contingent is entered here in Hopkinton New Hampshire, headlined by Providence College with Cormac Dixon, Jane Buckley, Anna Gardiner, Cara Laverty, and Niamh O’Mahony. Syracuse’s Matthew Neill and Iona’s Billy Coogan, Sean Lawton, and Muireann Duffy are also among the starters, as well as Holy Cross athlete Liam Lyons. For many of these athletes, this is the last step in a long campaign of steady improvement since early September.
South Region
Florida State’s Nicole Dinan competes at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Alabama. one of the fastest courses in the country and often host to record-breaking times.
South Central Region
University of Texas student Tadhg Donnelly will race at Agri Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas, representing the Longhorns in a region that traditionally produces some of the strongest men’s teams in the nation.
West Region
And finally in Sacramento, California the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex hosts another sizeable Irish contingent, including Oregon’s Abdel Laadjel and Anika Thompson, UCLA’s Ailish Hawkins, St Mary’s Oisín Spillane, and Portland’s Mark Milner. With the West Region among the most competitive, earning qualification here is often a benchmark of elite collegiate class.
Across all regions, the stakes could not be higher. The automatic and at-large team places will be decided immediately after racing, with final individual qualifiers confirmed by the NCAA later this weekend.
For Irish fans, attention will be on how many make it through to the big dance: the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, which will crown the national champions on November 22nd.
Will it be live streamed?
The South, Midwest and Northwest regionals will be streamed live on ESPN Plus for viewers in the United States with a paid subscription. Sadly, there is no official way to watch the action from this side of the Atlantic, so Irish fans will have to rely on updates, results and team announcements once racing wraps up.