FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 8, 2023) – The Northern Arizona University cross country teams will continue their postseason campaign as they travel to Lubbock, Texas for the NCAA Mountain Regional. Both teams saw strong performances two weeks ago at the Big Sky Conference Championships, sweeping both the team and individual titles for the third consecutive year.
The women made Big Sky history, scoring 15 points in the lowest point total in conference championships history.
Elise Stearns took the individual title, running the 5K course in a time of 16:21.10. The 'Jacks finished the race with a sweep of the top seven places as they saw the best team finish in conference history. Stearns finished second at last year's Mountain Regional with a 6K time of 19:55.7, pushing the women to a third-place finish.
The men also had an impressive victory, scoring just 20 points as they easily took the team title.
Nico Young won the individual title for the second year in a row, running the 8K course in a time of 22:49.80. Young is also the reigning Mountain Region champion, placing first last year in Albuquerque with a 10K time of 28:01.8.
Both teams will be looking to place in the top-2 to earn automatic bids to the NCAA National Championships. Should they not place first or second, they will wait until Saturday's selection show to find out their fate. The women will be looking to capitalize on their successful season and earn their first automatic bid for the national meet since 2007.
Last season, the men earned their place at the National Championships after finishing first with a score of 43 points.
Nico Young and
Drew Bosley placed first and second, respectively, with times of 28:01.8 and 28:01.9.
Ryan Raff finished ninth, while
Brodey Hasty placed 14
th and
Santiago Gomez-Prosser finished 17
th. Four of the five NAU scorers will return for this year's regional meet.
The Mountain Region will once again be highly competitive this season, with multiple nationally ranked teams races. On the men's side, No. 3 BYU, No. 19 New Mexico, No. 23 Colorado, and No. 24 Air Force will be competing. On the women's side No. 3 BYU, No. 13 Colorado, No. 20 Utah, No. 22 Utah Valley, and No. 27 Colorado State will race this weekend.
The 2023 Mountain Regional will be held on Friday, Nov 10 in Lubbock, Texas and will be hosted by the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The women will race first with a 6K beginning at 9:00 a.m. MST with the men following with a 10K at 10:00 a.m. MST. Live results for both races can be found
here.
Stay up to date with NAU Cross Country and Track & Field by following us on Twitter and Instagram.
