Recap: 2024 NCAA DIII Cross Country Regional Championships Saturday

Welcome to Regional Championships Saturday!

We’re about to find out which teams earn automatic bids to the upcoming 2024 NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships, held next Saturday, November 23, in Terre Haute, Indiana.

From The USTFCCCA InfoZone: Meets & Results | USTFCCCA Scoreboard

We’ll keep track of those teams and recap several meets below.

NCAA DIII Cross Country Automatic Qualifying Teams
Region		Men’s AQ		Women’s AQ
East		No. 20 MIT		No. 1 MIT
Great Lakes		No. 27 Calvin		No. 22 DePauw
Metro		No. 29 Moravian		Rowan
Mid-Atlantic		No. 11 Carnegie Mellon		No. 3 Johns Hopkins
Mideast		No. 7 RPI		No. 6 Williams
Midwest		No. 2 Wartburg		No. 4 UChicago
Niagara		No. 8 NYU		No. 5 NYU
North		No. 1 UW-La Crosse		No. 11 UW-La Crosse
South		No. 12 Lynchburg		No. 12 Washington and Lee
West		No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer		No. 9 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Mideast Region

CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS OF THE MEET

Men’s 8k Championship

It’s hard to beat Nathan Tassey of Roger Williams.

The same could be said for RPI’s men as a whole.

Tassey captured the individual title on Saturday afternoon, while the seventh-ranked Engineers dominated the race for the team title.

The Roger Williams standout traversed the 8k course in 24:03.4, 8.4 seconds ahead of Nathan Namiot of Williams. Tassey is undefeated this season with notable wins coming at the John McNichols Invitational in mid-September and the Connecticut College Invitational in mid-October.

RPI packed all five scorers in the top-10 to crush all comers. The Engineers went 3-4-6-7-9 for 29 points, 47 fewer than No. 14 Williams. RPI had a 19-second spread between its first and fifth runners.

Women’s 6k Championship

The race for the individual title was closer than that of the team.

And Jules Bleskoski of RPI won by 10.2 seconds, so that’s saying something.

Bleskoski pulled away over the final 1.2k of the 6k course to beat Haley Schoenegge of Vassar, 20:47.3 to 20:57.5. That was Bleskoski’s third win of the season, as she also took top individual honors at the Purple Valley Classic and the Paul Short Run.

No. 6 Williams, the top-ranked squad in the field, romped to the team title with 59 points – 51 fewer than No. 27 RPI. The Ephs went 4-10-11-15-19 with Kate Tuttle leading the way in fourth place.

Midwest Region

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Men’s 8k Championship

The Isaiah Hammerand show will head to Terre Haute, Indiana, next week. 

The ace for No. 2 Wartburg led wire-to-wire at the Saukie Golf Course on Saturday afternoon, eventually taking a two-second win over teammate Jacob Green. The Knights, led by Hammerand and Green, eked out a narrow four point win over the No. 4 North Central Cardinals. 

Several other nationally competitive teams were featured in the Midwest Region Championships this weekend, including No. 21 Washington (Mo.), which placed 3rd, No. 26 Loras, which placed 4th, and No. 28 Augustanna (Ill.), which placed 5th. 

Behind the Knights’ one-two punch of Hammerand and Green, Emerald Svienty and North Central teammate BJ Sorg took third and fifth place respectively, while Cornell College’s Isaac vanWestrienen took fourth. 

Women’s 6k Championship

She’s baaaaack.

After not racing since the John McNichols invitational, UChicago lowstick Evelyn Battleson-Gunkel made a triumphant return to the Maroons lineup, beating the field at the Midwest Regional by 25 seconds and helping UChicago to an emphatic win in the race for the team title.

The fourth-ranked Maroons comfortably defeated the No. 8 WashU Bears, putting up a 36 point score over the Bear’s 82. Wartburg, Central, and Illinois Wesleyan rounded out the top 5 programs at the meet. 

On the individual side, Aurora’s Deyanneira Colon Maldonado took second behind Battleson-Gunkel, followed by a 1-2 pair from Central of Addy Parrot and Peyton Steffan, and host Augustanna (Ill.) lowstick Emma Odle.

North Region

CLICK HERE FOR RESULTS OF THE MEET

Men’s 8k Championship

A stellar group of individuals didn’t disappoint, with Augsburg’s Mohammed Bati posting his fifth-straight victory of the year. Bati clocked 24:20.3 to win by 9.7 seconds over twins Aidan and Grant Matthai of UW-La Crosse. Despite having the same time, it was Aidan’s first win over WIAC champ Grant since Sept. 14.

Just 0.1 seconds back was another set of almost inseparable teammates – Christian Patzka and Gunner Schlender of UW-Whitewhater. Patza was the two-time defending champ (and two-time national runner-up).

The three top-10 ranked teams finished in order with No. 1 UW-La Crosse successfully defending its title with 40 points over No. 6 UW-Whitewater (78) and No. 9 St. Olaf (87). The Eagles’ five scorers were all in the top-14 of this strong region and within 24.5 seconds of each other.

Unranked UW-Stevens Point was fourth with 158 points ahead of No. 22 UW-Eau Claire (178) and No. 30 Carthage (185).

Women’s 6k Championship

The individual race looked like a one-woman show early with Carleton’s Hannah Preisser building a nearly two-second lead in the first kilometer and increasing it at every checkpoint until crossing the finish line in 21:24.6. Preisser – undefeated by DIII competition this fall – won by 35.6 seconds over Brekkyn Lammert of UW-Stout, who was 4.0 seconds up on teammate Mckayla Felton.

No. 11 UW-La Crosse won its first regional team title since 2021, scoring 63 points with a tight 1-5 group that finished within 14.6 seconds of each other, led by 10^th-placer Madelynn McIntyre as the Eagles secured the prized auto qualifying spot.

No. 14 St. Olaf was runner-up with 99 points, led the 4-5 finish of Lauren Walda and Alison Bode. No. 18 (and two-time defending champion) Carleton (114), UW-Eau Claire (118) and No. 21 UW-Stout (125) rounded out the top-5.

Other Results of Note

Just one point decided the men’s team titles in both the Mid-Atlantic Region and the Niagara Region: No. 11 Carnegie Mellon beat No. 13 Johns Hopkins, 39-40, for the automatic qualifying spot in the former; No. 8 NYU beat No. 5 SUNY Geneseo, 29-30, to advance to NCAAs in the latter.

Who said the men could have all the fun? No. 9 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps knocked off No. 2 Colorado College by a single point for the women’s title in the West Region. The Athenas totaled 61 points to the Tigers’ 62. Riley Capuano gave CMS the ultimate low stick with her individual victory.