Kentucky Cross Country to Run at NCAA Southeast Regionals Friday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Kentucky cross country teams will look to extend their seasons at the 2017 NCAA Southeast Regional Championships at the Panorama Farms Course on Friday.

The women’s 6,000-meter race will go off at 10:30 a.m. ET, with the men’s 10k following an hour later.

Flashresults.com will time the meet.
 
Admission to the meet is free, although the meet organizers will charge a $5 parking fee (driving directions).
 
Meet format
The name of Friday’s game will be qualifying for the NCAA Championships, to be run on Saturday, Nov. 17 in Louisville, Kentucky.
 
The top-two teams at each regional championship punch an automatic bid to NCAAs. 
 
In addition to the 18 automatic bids coming from the nine regional meets to be held around the nation on Friday, another 13 at-large bids will be extended Saturday based on 2017 competition résumés – based largely on head-to-head.
 
The top-four individual regional finishers not on advancing teams automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. Individual at-large bids can also be extended. Those at-large bids will be announced with the full NCAA Championships field on Saturday.
 
Region outlook
The southeast region includes all Division I universities in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
 
No. 7 Furman, No. 9 Virginia Tech and No. 23 North Carolina State are the Southeast Region men’s teams ranked in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Coaches Poll.
 
No. 5 NC State, No. 12 Furman and No. 23 Eastern Kentucky are the top-25 Southeast women’s teams.
seniors Katy Kunc and Jacob Thomson were named Southeastern Conference Cross Country Cross Country Scholar Athletes of the Year on Wednesday.

The Kentucky women’s team is ranked No. 9 in the Southeast Region entering this week. The UK men’s team is ranked 10th in the Southeast.

The precedent
One point, the measure of three tenths of a second, separated the Kentucky women’s cross country team from an automatic National Championships bid at Regionals last year.
 
The Wildcats battled remarkably, moving up three spots in the final 1,000 meters to place third as a team with 164 points compared with Louisville’s 163.
 
Katy Kunc finished third overall in a 6k time of 20:26.60 to earn an individual automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. She became the first Kentucky women’s team member to earn a NCAA individual bid since Cally Macumber in 2013.
 
The Kentucky men’s team finished 60 points behind winner NC State, and 45 behind host No. 16 Virginia. The Wildcats scored 150 points. The four teams ahead of UK all finished with 27 points of one another.
 
Jacob Thomson placed seventh overall and earned his second consecutive NCAA at-large team bid in 2016.
 
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.
 
Kentucky outlook
Thomson repeated as Southeastern Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year, while Kunc claimed the honor for the first time, the league office announce on Wednesday.
 
Thomson, a senior in accounting and finance, holds a 3.63 grade point average. He placed fifth at the SEC Championships, up two spots from a year ago to earn First Team All-SEC honors for the third year in a row.
 
Kunc is a senior with a 3.63 grade point average in marketing and economics. She claimed bronze at the SEC Championships for the second year and earned First Team All-SEC honors – both for the second year in a row.
 
The UK men’s team was fourth and the women’s team was sixth at the SEC Championships two weeks ago.

Ben Young and Daniel Southard earned top-25 finishes at SECs.
 
Avery Bussjager was the No. 2 finisher for the UK women’s team – 23rd overall – at SECs.

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The NCAA will announce the full National Championships field on Saturday.
 
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For the most in-depth coverage of the UK cross country and track and field program follow the @KentuckyTrack social media channels on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook as well as on UKathletics.com.