EOU women’s cross country heading to NAIA National Championships
By Joe Hathaway on Wednesday, November 8th, 2023 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – (Release from EOU) The final field for the 44th annual NAIA Women’s Cross Country National Championship was released Tuesday by the NAIA. The Mountaineers made the 36 team field by earning an at-large bid.
“I am extremely excited to get them back to the Nationals meet on an at-large bid.” Head Coach Ben Welch said.
The Mountaineers return to the National Championships after missing it a season ago. The last time EOU’s Women’s Cross Country made it as a team was 2019. This year’s appearance makes it 12 total for the women’s program.
“This is a young, hard working team that has kept focused throughout the ups and downs that come with this sport in general, but in particular with such a young team. They never lost focus as a team and raced tough when it mattered. Looking forward to the effort they will give in Vancouver in two weeks.” Welch added.
Qualifier Notes
2023’s championship will be the eighth that has taken place at Fort Vancouver.
This year’s field is made up of 24 automatic qualifiers, 11 at-large berths and one host berth. A team may qualify with an automatic berth by winning its conference championship meet or as the runner-up in the championship meet provided the conference has 12 or more schools and the runner-up is rated in the top 30 of the final NAIA Women’s Cross Country rating.
The 11, at-large berths were determined by the final NAIA Women’s Cross Country rating and reviewed by the NAIA Women’s Cross Country Championship Oversight Committee.
In addition to the team qualifiers, 88 individuals qualified for the championship based on their times throughout the year.
The field will prepare to race on Friday, November 17, 2023 at 10:30 a.m. PT at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Championship Course in Vancouver, Wash.
