KU Men Finish Fourth at Midwest Regional

Nov. 13, 2004

PEORIA, Ill. –

The Kansas Jayhawks men’s cross country team finished fourth out of 21 teams at the NCAA Midwest Regional meet Saturday in Peoria, Ill. The top two teams at the regional, Minnesota and Oklahoma State will receive automatic bids to the NCAA Championship, while KU will have to wait and see if they are picked as an at-large team. The Kansas women’s team had a good performance, placing 16th out of 26 teams in the women’s race.

Sophomore Benson Chesang followed up his Big 12 Championship victory with a sixth place finish (30:30.74) at the regional and an automatic bid to next weekend’s NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. Freshman Colby Wissell had a good day in his first 10k race placing 17th in a time of 31:03.92. Junior Matt French placed 26th and senior Chris Jones finished 36th. Andrew Carlson of Minnesota was the individual winner with a time of 29:48.44. Chesang’s brother, Mathew, placed second for Kansas State with a time of 30:02.16.

“It was a good race for us but it was not a great race,” Kansas head coach Stanley Redwine said. “It was our goal to qualify for the NCAA meet, but it is now out of our hands. We are hoping for an at-large bid.”

Senior Megan Manthe once again paced the women’s team. Manthe placed 61st with a 6k time of 22:14.75. Freshman Lisa Morrisey finished 72nd in 22:25.94.

“I think we finished as good as we could have on the women’s side,” Redwine said. “We have a lot of young runners that continue to get better. We are headed in the right direction.”

The KU men’s team will learn their destiny when the NCAA Division I Track and Field Committee will select 13 at-large teams and two at-large individuals from the nine regional championships Monday, Nov. 15. A total of 31 teams and 38 individuals will be competing for the men’s and women’s NCAA Championships next Saturday, Nov. 22.