MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University cross country team heads to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to compete in the NCAA National Championships on Saturday, November 19.
This year’s championship is hosted by Oklahoma State University at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course. The women’s 6k race will begin at 10:20 a.m. ET and will be nationally televised on ESPNU, while live stats will be available on WVUsports.com.
Saturday marks the first time the Mountaineers have made the trip to Stillwater this season. Last season in the National Championship, then second in the red shirt Ceili McCabe took third with a 6k time of 19:29.5. McCabe’s effort at the National Championships last year stands as her personal best performance in the 6k and the best finish by a WVU runner at the National Championships in program history. She also earned All-American honors. The previous best finish by a Mountaineer at the national meet came in 2011, when Kate Harrison took eighth for WVU.
McCabe will line up in little redshirt Katherine Dowiesenior sixth year Mikaela Luckijunior redshirt Jeanne Reix-Charatred high top Mikenna Vanderheydenred high top Charlotte Wood and the second red shirt Abbey Yuhasz. McCabe and Yuhasz earned Big 12 Runner of the Week honors earlier in the campaign.
West Virginia earned a 21st-place finish at the National Championships last season, improving to 29th to finish the 2020 campaign. Saturday’s race marks the third straight year WVU has qualified for the national meet. The Mountaineers have not qualified for the NCAA National Championships three years in a row since they made five straight appearances between 2007-2011.
West Virginia is coming off a second-place finish at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships in State College, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 11, which gave the Mountaineers an automatic bid to the National Championships. It was a historic day for WVU as McCabe took first for the second year in a row, becoming the first WVU runner to accomplish the feat. West Virginia also earned four All-Mid-Atlantic Region honors, as McCabe, Wood, Lucki and Dowie all finished in the top-25.
For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUXCTF at I tweetFacebook and Instagram.
