UKXC Welcomes Quality Field For Bluegrass XC Invitational

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky will be the host collegiate institution for the 2017 Bluegrass Cross Country Invitational to be run Saturday at Masterson Station Park in the northwestern part of Lexington off Leestown Road.

The men’s 8,000-meter race is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. with the women’s 5k slated for a 10:10 a.m. start.

The start line will be located on the hill moving down toward the soccer fields. The finish lines will be located near the lower park soccer fields, with parking located on the sloping fields above.
 
The course is 100 percent grass over rolling fields typical of central Kentucky. Masterson Station Park will be host site for the 2019 Southeastern Conference Championships and 2021 NCAA Southeast Regional.

Bellarmine (men’s team only), Eastern Kentucky University, IPFW, UK, Ohio and Xavier (Ohio) make up the collegiate field.
 
High school races will follow the collegiate competitions.
 
The Kentucky men’s and women’s teams each placed second at the Eagle Opener in Morehead last Friday. Katy Kunc placed second in the women’s race and Ben Young was runner-up in the men’s individual competition.
 
Cross country refresher
Points are scored in cross country corresponding to finishing place. The place of each of the top five finishers on each team are added up and the team with the lowest total wins. Placers outside a team’s top five cannot score so finishers on other teams that might finish behind a team’s No. 6 or No. 7 finisher can get a point total fewer than their overall place in the race.
 
2017 outlook
The Kentucky women’s team is ranked No. 4 in the Southeast Region by the USTFCCCA. The UK men’s team is the No. 5 team in the Southeast.
 
Kentucky had two representatives at the NCAA Championships last season.

In 2016, Katy Kunc was the UK women’s team’s first All-American since 2013. She earned bronze at the Southeastern Conference Championships and NCAA Southeast Regional last year.

A year ago for the UK men’s team, Jacob Thomson made the NCAA Championships individually for the second season in a row. Thomson placed seventh in the men’s race at the Southeast Regional. He was named SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year in October.

The UK men’s team placed third, and the women’s team was seventh at the SEC Championships last year.

The UK women’s team was third and the men’s team was fifth at the NCAA Southeast Regionals last year.
 
UK has not qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team since the women’s squad did so in 2008. The Kentucky men’s team last made NCAAs in 2003 – placing 28th with 642 points.

In order to be eligible to participate in the championships, teams and individuals qualify in their respective NCAA regional competitions.
 
Thirty-one teams are selected to participate in each championship. The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualify from each of the nine regions, for a total of 18 teams. Thirteen additional teams were selected at-large.
 
Thirty-eight individuals are selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. All individual qualifiers finish in the top 25 in their regions.

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