EVANSVILLE, In. – The No. 15 University of Southern Indiana men's cross country team enters the NCAA II Midwest Region Championships on Saturday in full stride, having won its previous two meets –the Fast Cats Classic and the GLVC Championship – and is looking to make it three in a row.
The Midwest Region Championship will be run at 9 a.m. (CST) at the E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the same course that hosted the Greater Louisville Classic, where USI finished 19th out of 35 teams seven weeks ago.
While the main focus is a berth at the NCAA II National Championships on December 4, winning a regional championship would bolster the Screaming Eagles' confidence and build momentum entering the national meet.
With a top four finish on Saturday, USI would secure its sixth consecutive appearance at the NCAA II National Championships.
The Eagles are looking to win their first regional championship since 1991 and, in the process, stake their claim as the top team in the Midwest Region ahead of regionally top-ranked Grand Valley State University, which is ranked fifth nationally.
Head Coach Mike Hillyard believes it is not out of the realm or possibility for his team to defeat Grand Valley State. “This is one year where the teams ranked five through fifteen in the national poll are very similar and show parity in the rankings.”
Leading the pack for the Eagles will be junior All-Americans Dustin Emerick and Brendan Devine along with senior Andrew Dixon. All three finished in the top five at the GLVC Championships two weeks ago in Somers, Wisconsin.
Emerick and Dixon are attempting to earn All-Region honors for the second straight season. Devine looks to earn his third consecutive All-Region honor, which would make him just the fourth runner in the history of the program to earn three straight All-Region honors.
