Weekend Recap: 2023 NCAA DII Regional Championships

Welcome to Regional Championships Saturday!

We’re about to find out which teams earn automatic bids – and those who must rely on at-large berths – to the upcoming 2022 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships on Saturday, November 18, at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course in Joplin, Missouri.

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | USTFCCCA Scoreboard

We’ll keep track of which teams earned automatic bids to the Show Me State.

South Central Region

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Men’s 10k Championship

Defending national champions Colorado School of Mines has been the No. 1 team in the country since early in 2022. Based on their performance at the South Central regional, the Orediggers kept their post as the team to beat. Mines won the regional for the fifth-straight time, placing three runners in the finishing top seven to tally 43 points, holding off No. 4 Adams State who notched just 51 points with their top four placing in the top-11.

No. 9 West Texas A&M with 70 points also grabbed an automatic national-championship qualifying spot as they were led by regional champion William Amponsah who covered the 10k course in 29:32.59, eight seconds ahead of Adams State’s Romain Legendre.

No. 6 Western Colorado (123) and No. 7 Colorado Christian (130) rounded out the region’s top five and will have to wait for an at-large bid.

Women’s 6k Championship

Four of the nation’s top five clashed in Lubbock, Texas, for the NCAA South Central Regional. Despite a bevy of menacing competition on paper, No. 2 Adams State once again took the region crown by a substantial margin. With its seven runners finishing in the top 20, Adams State tallied just 44 points to better No. 3 Colorado School of Mines (76) and No. 4 Western Colorado (111) who also earned automatic qualification to the national championships. No. 5 West Texas A&M (118) and No. 10 UC-Colorado Springs (125) claimed fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Grizzlies were led by individual region winner Brianna Robles. The ASU senior, who also took the regional crown in 2021, finished the 6k course in 20:13.69, over nine seconds ahead of West Texas A&M’s Eleonora Curtabbi.

Central Region

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Men’s 10k Championship

No. 5 East Central (Okla.) cruised to the team title 40 points as Peter Kipkemboi led the way with the individual crown in 29:46.9. While the Tigers won by 72 points for their first AQ berth since 2015, it was much closer in the following places as the finish had little resemblance to the national rankings entering this competition. 

No. 16 Pittsburg State was second with 112 points, while Northwest Missouri – only listed among the RV programs behind three additional nationally ranked teams from this region – eked out the third AQ spot with 125 points ahead of No. 29 Washburn (126). Host Missouri Southern, who entered unranked, claimed fifth (165) as the Lions were led by fifth-place finisher Gideon Kimutai, a three-time previous individual champion. 

Kipkemboi won by 4.6 seconds over Ryan Hartman of No. 18 Augustana (S.D.), while East Central’s Amos Pkiach was third and joined in the top-10 by teammate Oliver Kiptoo (eighth) as the Tigers were the only squad with more than two top-10 finishers.

Women’s 6k Championship

No. 6 Winona State won easily, much like its top runner Lindsay Cunningham, who claimed a third-straight individual title. The Warriors scored 52 points to lead runner-up No. 11 Augustana (S.D.) and third-place No. 20 Pittsburg State as the other automatic qualifiers with 95 and 128 points, respectively. 

For Winona State it’s a first AQ berth to the national championships since 2012. The Vikings secured a sixth-straight trip as an AQ, while it’s a second-straight for the Gorillas. No. 21 U-Mary (142) and No. 27 (and host) Missouri Southern (205) rounded out the top-5. 

Cunningham bolted to the front early, leading by 11.5 seconds at the mile split (5:02.7) and 23.5 seconds at 3k (9:42.4) before her final winning margin of 52.8 seconds with a time of 19:33.3 over Khot Juac of Sioux Falls (20:26.1). Winona State’s Kaylee Beyer was third and Sophia Taarud was eighth as the Warriors were the only squad with more than two top-10 finishers.

Midwest Region

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Men’s 10k Championship

Nobody could deny Grand Valley State another regional title.

The Lakers, who were ranked second in the most recent National Coaches’ Poll, steamrolled the field with 47 points. That gave GVSU 57 fewer points than No. 12 Lewis. The Flyers were the Best of the Rest, as they were eight points ahead of No. 14 Saginaw Valley State, which earned the final automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA DII Cross Country Championships.

Women’s 6k Championship

Top-ranked Grand Valley State let its depth do the talking on Saturday.

The Lakers, ranked No. 1 in the most recent National Coaches’ Poll, packed the top-10 with six runners as they romped to a 58-point victory to win yet another regional crown. GVSU totaled 28 points, spearheaded by a 3-4-5 finish by Natalie Graber, Klaudia O’Malley and Anastasia Tucker. Kayce Rypma and Abby Vanderkooi weren’t too far behind in seventh and ninth, respectively, to round out the Laker scoring lineup at Angel Mounds in Evansville, Indiana.

No. 16 Cedarville sprung an upset to finish runner-up with 86 points, seven fewer than No. 9 Lewis. Both the Yellow Jackets and the Flyers earned automatic bids to the upcoming NCAA DII Cross Country Championships.

Liz Wamsley of Hillsdale won the individual title in 20:04.5.

West Region

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Men’s 10k Championship

The race for the final automatic spot was a dandy.

No. 8 Chico State and No. 10 Azusa Pacific finished first and second with 47 and 61 points, respectively, but No. 13 Western Washington and No. 17 Cal Poly Pomona waged a great battle behind them. When they tallied the final scores, the Broncos secured the region’s last AQ to the upcoming NCAA DII Cross Country Championships by just two points over the Vikings, 77-79.

Johan Correa of Central Washington earned top individual honors in 30:42.1.

Women’s 6k Championship

The race played out exactly how the regional rankings thought it would.

No. 12 Western Washington captured the regional title, while No. 13 Biola (Calif.) and No. 14 Chico State snagged the other two automatic bids. The Vikings tallied 75 points with a 5-11-13-22-24 finish, compared to the 86-point score for the Eagles and the 132-point tally for the Wildcats. Chico State actually earned the final automatic bid on a tiebreaker against No. 19 Concordia Irvine based off head-to-head results.

Kendall Kramer of Alaska Fairbanks won the individual title in 20:29.8.