LARAMIE, Wyo. — The University of Wyoming Cross Teams are on their way to Provo, Utah, to compete in the 2021 NCAA Mountain Regional hosted by BYU at the Timpanogos Golf Course on Friday November 12.
Coming off separate sixth place finishes at the 2021 Mountain West Championships the Cowboys and Cowgirls will be competing against the other top teams from the region for a spot in the 2021 NCAA Cross Country Championships. The region boasts the most ranked teams of any region in the country with four teams in the top 11 and seven in the top 26 on the men's side, with four teams in the top seven and seven in the top 22 on the women's side. Those ranked teams include No. 1 ranked Northern Arizona and No. 2 Colorado for the men while No. 2 New Mexico, No. 3 Colorado and No. 4 BYU will race against the Cowgirls.
Wyoming Cross Country Coach Scott Dahlberg had this to say about the region, "The strength of the Mountain region makes everyone better. In addition to the teams ranked currently, there are quite a few who aren't ranked now but were ranked at earlier points in the year. The goal is to beat as many teams as we can."
In total 19 teams will compete for the women in the 6K to be ran at 11am while 18 teams will represent the men's side of things in the 10K slated for noon. In the field there will be five total schools representing the Mountain West in the men's race with six schools representing the conference in the women's race.
Coming off the Mountain West Championships the Cowboys top finisher was Albert Steiner while the Cowgirls were led by Leah Christians. Steiner ran an 8K time of 24:29.9 and Christians finished with a 6K time of 20:41.7.
Dahlberg had this to say about the Cowboys and Cowgirls, "The women just need to keep doing what they've been doing all year, running tough and together. The girls have stepped up well and we're excited to see what they do. For the men, each guy has run a great race this year, but we haven't had a race where they all put it together on the same day. That's what we're looking for on Friday."
Fans can follow along at https://www.runnercard.com/runner/data/1002953/result/ or by following @wyo_track on Twitter.
The Pokes path to the NCAA Championships, to be held in Tallahassee, Fla., on Saturday Nov. 20, will run through Provo. In total, 31 teams runs at Nationals with 18 automatic qualifiers from the nine regions in the country with an additional 13 teams to be selected through an at-large process. The NCAA selection show will be held on Saturday Nov. 13th at 3pm (MT) on NCAA.com.
