Kosgei, Kasagule and Ronoh to Run in NCAA Championships
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. ? The Southland Conference will be represented by three student-athletes at the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships Monday, Nov. 24 at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind.
Lamar’s Samuel Kosgei and Francis Kasagule will compete in the men’s championship, which will begin at approximately 11:45 a.m., CST. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Anne Ronoh will be the conference’s lone entry in the women’s race, which begins at 11:08 a.m., CST. Both races will be broadcast live on CBS College Sports and streamed online at www.NCAA.com.
Kosgei, who was conference male athlete of the year after winning the Southland Conference Championship on Nov. 3, finished second at the NCAA Cross Country South Central Regional last Saturday in Waco, Texas. Kasagule, the second-place finisher at the conference meet, finished eighth at the regional. Ronoh, the Southland’s newcomer of the year after she finished second, ran to a second-place finish at the regional.
Thirty-eight individuals were selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. All individual qualifiers finished in the top 25 in their region.
In order to be eligible to participate in the championships, teams and individuals qualified in their respective NCAA regions. Thirty-one teams were selected to participate in each championship. The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the nine regions, for a total of 18 teams. Thirteen additional teams were selected at-large.
Lamar, the 2008 Southland Conference Men’s Cross Country Champions, finished third at the regional meet last Saturday behind Texas A&M and Arkansas, which went 1-2. The Cardinals finished ahead of both Texas and Rice. Stephen F. Austin was eighth and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was ninth, while UT Arlington was 13th and UTSA 14th.
A&M-Corpus Christi, which won the 2008 Southland Conference women’s championship, finished seventh at the regional meet on Saturday and was the Southland’s top team. Stephen F. Austin was ninth, Texas State was 11th. UT Arlington tied for 13th and Southeastern Louisiana finished 15th.