BOONE, N.C. - The App State men's and women's cross country teams are set to travel to Spartanburg, S.C., for Friday's NCAA Southeast Regional. The women's 6K is scheduled for 10 a.m., with the men's 10K to follow at 11 a.m.
Last Time Out
The App State men captured their fourth consecutive Sun Belt Cross Country Championship with a dominant performance in Foley, Ala.
Thomas Wlazlowski led the way for the Mountaineers and became App State's first Sun Belt individual cross country champion (23:33.4). The rest of the team earned All-Sun Belt honors for the second consecutive season with Noah Martinson (third), Henry Stark (fourth), Jackson Tuck (sixth) and Rowan Gwin (seventh) all joining Wlazlowski on the first team.
Brad Herbster earned Sun Belt Coach of the Year for the fourth consecutive season, and Stark took home the Sun Belt Men's Elite Award for the second time in as many seasons and the third consecutive year for the Mountaineers, an academic-athletic honor presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average. Tuck earned App State's third straight Sun Belt Freshman of the Year award, finishing 11 spots higher than the next freshman.
The collective group effort helped lead them to the best score (21) by a Sun Belt winning men's team since 2002 - an astonishing 56 points ahead of second-place Arkansas State. Their four-peat marks the first Sun Belt men's four-peat in nearly 40 years (Western Kentucky, 1984-87).
Josie Jackson (ninth) and Tessa Massa (10th) led the Mountaineers in the women's 5K for the second time in as many seasons. They both snagged top-10 finishes, earning second-team All-Sun Belt honors, while Breanna Budzinski (21st) earned her second consecutive third-team All-Sun Belt honors.
NCAA Championships Qualifications
At the NCAA Championships, the field will feature 32 teams and 38 individuals. The top two teams at each of the nine regional meets will automatically advance to total 18 automatic qualifying teams. Fourteen at-large qualifying teams are selected based on a point system reflective of how they beat common opponents throughout the season. A total of 36 individuals (the top four finishing individuals per region) who are not already on a qualifying team will automatically advance to the championship. Two individuals will be selected at-large to round out the 38 individual qualifiers.
App State was last represented at the NCAA Cross Country Championships by App State Athletics Hall of Famer Mary Jayne (MJ) Harrelson in 2000. While at App State, Harrelson qualified for three consecutive NCAA Championships (1998, 1999, 2000). The women's squad also saw fellow App State Athletics Hall of Famer Whitney Ball qualify for the championship meet in 1989. The men's squad last appeared at the NCAA Championships in 1994 with a team qualification. Jon Crumbliss, Jamie Griggs, Tom Holland, Brian Miesch, Seth Peoples, Judson Sarver and Alan Whicker competed for the Black and Gold under the direction of 2010 App State Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Al Fereshetian.
App State's men and women are looking to improve on last year's team regional results of 16th and 22nd, respectively. Since joining the Sun Belt, the men's best regional finish was 10th in 2023, while the women's was 13th in 2014.
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