EVANSVILLE, Ind.—University of Southern Indiana Men’s and Women’s Cross Country makes their long-awaited return to the NCAA post-season Friday when they co-host the NCAA Division I Great Lakes Region Championships Friday at Angel Mounds.
Friday’s races mark the first time in school history that the Screaming Eagles will compete in an NCAA-sponsored post-season event in any sport, and they will do it in front of their home crowd.
A total of 35 schools from four states (Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin) and nine different conferences will converge on Angel Mounds Friday and the Screaming Eagles will find themselves competing against multiple Power 4 institutions, including six from the Big Ten.
USI’s men are coming off a second-place finish at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships two weeks ago in Charleston, Illinois. The Screaming Eagles finished in a tie with the University of Tennessee at Martin but lost out on a tiebreaker as UT-Martin claimed a 3-2 win in comparing the top five runners for each team against each other.
Junior Alex Nolan and senior Dominick Beine both earned first-team All-Conference honors after finishing third and sixth, respectively. Nolan was named the OVC Male Athlete of the Year the previous day after carding four top 20 finishes on the season and earning OVC Runner of the Week honors three times.
USI’s women were third at the OVC Championships despite placing three runners in the top 15 of the race. Sophomore Hadessah Austin and junior Ellie Hall both raced to first-team All-OVC honors with respective finishes of fourth and fifth, while junior Zoe Sewardfinished 14th to coral second-team All-OVC accolades.
Hall also was named the OVC Female Athlete of the Year after being named the OVC Runner of the Week twice and posting the conference’s fastest six-kilometer time (20 minutes, 58.5 seconds) during the regular season.
As for the field, Michigan State, Butler, Wisconsin, Notre Dame and Michigan respectively represent the top five teams in the most-recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association Great Lakes Region Poll. Purdue, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Toledo and Youngstown State rounded out the top 10, while Oakland, Miami, Akron, Ohio and USI were all in the top 15.
Nationally, Michigan State (13th), Butler (14th), Wisconsin (15th) and Notre Dame (16th) find themselves in the top 20 of the latest USTFCCCA Top 30 Men’s Coaches’ Poll. Michigan was ranked No. 26.
On the women’s side, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Toledo and Ohio were the top five teams in the latest USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Poll. Cincinnati, Bowling Green, Michigan, Ohio State and Xavier rounded out the top 10, while Central Michigan, Miami (OH), Indiana State, Indiana and Youngstown State were in the top 15.
Nationally, Notre Dame is ranked No. 5 in the latest USTFCCCA Top 30 Women’s Coaches’ Poll. Michigan State and Wisconsin are ranked No. 23 and No. 25, respectively.
The women’s six-kilometer race opens the competition Friday with a 10 a.m. (CST) start time, while the men’s 10k is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Admission costs are $10 at the gate and per NCAA host operations, no pets will be permitted.
Friday’s meet also is co-hosted by the Evansville Regional Sports Commission as well as the University of Evansville.
