Jayhawk Women Earn Bid to NCAA Cross Country Championships
LAWRENCE, Kan. – For the first time in 21 years the Kansas women’s cross country team earned a spot at the NCAA Championships it was announced Saturday afternoon. The Jayhawks earned one of 13 at-large selections following their fifth-place finish at the Midwest Regional in Lawrence Friday. Senior Evan Landes was the lone Jayhawk selected from the men’s squad after he earned an individual at-large selection. The NCAA meet will be held on Saturday, November 21 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The KU women will make their first appearance at the National Championships since 1994, when the Jayhawks earned an automatic bid following their win at the regional championships. That squad went on to finish 18th at the NCAA meet.
This year’s squad is led by freshman Sharon Lokedi, who had already punched her ticket as an individual via her third-place finish at the regional meet, which marked the highest finish by a KU female at the event since 1994. Lokedi has already turned out several highlights this season, earning All-Region and All-Big 12 honors notching a victory at the Rim Rock Classic on Oct. 3 and claiming a fourth-place finish at the Pre-National meet on Oct. 17, which was held on the same course that will host the national meet next weekend.
The Kansas cross country program will see a team compete at Nationals for the first time since the men’s squad ran in the event in 2006.
Landes earned a bid to his first NCAA Championship meet following his ninth place finish at regionals Friday. The senior out of Mulvane, Kansas is a two-time All-Region and All-Big 12 performer and will look to ran to become KU’s first All-American on the cross country trails since 2007.
The University of Louisville will host the NCAA championships next Saturday at Tom Sawyer State Park. The women’s 6K race will begin at 11 a.m. (CT), followed by the men’s 10K race at noon (CT). A live webcast of the championships will be broadcast from 11 a.m. CT until the conclusion of the awards ceremony on NCAA.com.
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