RENO, Nev. (Nov. 15, 2024) – After placing second with 65 points at the NCAA Mountain Regional in Reno, Nev., today, the Northern Arizona women's cross country team has earned an automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Division I National Championships. The women raced a 6k at the Washoe Golf Course while the men competed in a 10k.
David Mullarkey and
Corey Gorgas also earned individual auto-qualifier bids after placing fifth and 11th overall, respectively.
The men's team finished third with 71 points, just 10 points behind second place New Mexico who earned the final auto-bid. The Lumberjack men will await to see if they can earn an at-large bid during the NCAA selection show that is set for 3 p.m. Mountain Standard time on Saturday, Nov. 16 on NCAA.com.
Northern Arizona earned the second of two auto-bids, auto-qualifying for the second-straight season after winning the Mountain Regional last year. BYU earned the other spot, taking the win with 52 points. The Lumberjacks finished ahead of New Mexico (111 points) Utah (122 points) and Utah Valley (161 points) to round out the top five.
Elise Stearns, in just her second race since the 2023-24 indoor track and field season, led NAU with a fourth-place finish after clocking a time of 19:55.4.
Ali Upshaw, the reigning Big Sky Conference individual champion, was right behind her in 19:56.4 to finish sixth.
Alex Carlson and
Keira Moore each notched top-20 finishes, with Carlson finishing 15
th in 20:13.6 and Moore placing 17
th with a time of 20:14.4.
Karrie Baloga was 23
rd in 20:17.4 as NAU placed all five scorers in the top-25. Competing but not scoring were
Nikita Moore (26
th, 20:21.0) and
Maggi Congdon (31
st, 20:28.9).
The NAU men will have to wait for an at-large bid for the first time since 2015 after finishing third. The Lumberjacks have won six out of the last eight National Championships and have qualified as a team for 23-straight seasons.
BYU (52 points) and New Mexico (61 points) earned auto-bids and were followed by the Lumberjacks who placed third with 71 points. Northern Arizona finished ahead of Utah State (152 points) and Colorado (157 points) in the top five.
The top four individuals not on an auto-qualifying team earn an automatic berth to the championships. Mullarkey advanced as an individual after finishing fifth with a time of 29:35.8. The defending Big Sky individual champ started the race with the lead back but had dropped to 18
th place by the race's halfway point. By the 7.5k mark, Mullarkey continued to battle and had worked himself back up to seventh place and was able to notch a fifth-place finish at the end.
Gorgas,
Santiago Prosser and
Colin Sahlman ran as a group and took up spots 11 through 13. Gorgas placed 11
th in 29:35.8 and he was immediately preceded by Prosser (12
th, 29:37.4) and Sahlman (13
th, 29:38.4).
Ford Washburn was the team's last scorer, crossing the finish line in 29:57.8 to place 30
th. Rounding things out were
Justin Keyes (41
st, 30:11.8) and
Kang Nyoak (78
th, 31:24.6).
The NCAA Division I National Championships are set for Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wisc. The women will race a 6k at 9:20 a.m. Mountain Standard time and the men will run a 10k at 10:10 a.m. Both squads finished runner-up at last year's championships.
