AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn cross country starts postseason competition Friday at the NCAA South Regional at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Friday, November 15. The south region is one of nine, nationally, that will be contesting races Friday with hopes of qualifying for the NCAA Championships on November 23. The women’s 6k will start at 7:30 a.m. CT and the men’s 10k at 8:30 a.m. CT.
“I feel really good about both teams going into this meet,” Auburn cross country coach Aaron Kindt said. “Both enter with different mind frames, but the end goal is that we want to be able to come to this meet and treat it like the SEC Championships. We want to be one of the top two finishers at the end of this meet, just like the SEC meet.”
The men will compete against 26 teams and the women will go against 32 teams. There is one men’s team and five women’s teams that are nationally recognized in the latest edition of the USTFCCCA poll. On the men’s side it includes No. 10 Alabama, and the women will go toe-to-toe with No. 7 Alabama, No. 16 Tennessee, No. 18 Florida, No. 24 Florida State, No. 27 Lipscomb.
The women will also run against SEC rivals Georgia, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. The men will race Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
“For the men, with this senior heavy squad, this is a meet that we’ve circled as if we want to race in another one, we have to go get the job done,” Kindt said.
Led by senior Ryan Kinnane and freshman Nickson Chebii, the Auburn men are looking to bounce back after coming up just short of their goal at SEC Cross Country Championships with a seventh-place finish two weeks ago.
In his final SEC cross country meet, Kinnane delivered the best 8k performance of his collegiate career to take 14th overall and earn all-SEC honors for the third consecutive year (23:02.30). The three-time SEC Male Scholar Athlete of the Year will compete in his fourth NCAA Regional race and be vying to qualify for his second NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Chebii finished ninth at SECs with a time of 22:44.90. The Kenya native was named to the men’s second team and All-Freshman Team for his efforts.
“We’re one of seven teams that are jockeying to be right there in the top three spots,” Kindt said.
Lacing up alongside Kinnane and Chebii will be seniors Fuji Anday, Cooper Atkins, Carson Bedics and Hayden Judge, junior Joseph Perry, and sophomore Max Hardin.
“For the women, we have not had the success we’ve wanted at this meet,” Kindt said. “We have to go in there with a chip on our shoulder if we want to have a chance at being a national-level team in the next couple of years. We’ve got to take the next steps.”
Leading the Tigers on the women’s side throughout the season has been freshman Brenda Jepchirchir. She has been the top finisher for the women in every meet she’s competed in this season. At the SEC Championships she finished fifth overall in the 6k, crossing in 19:13.60. She was named to the women’s second team and women’s All-Freshman Team.
Jepchirchir was followed by junior Gené Coetzee, who finished 30th overall and will be racing in her third NCAA Regional.
Jepchirchir and Coetzee will be joined by freshmen Camila Gomes and Alexandra Walsh, sophomore Shelby Balding, Audrey Dunn and Cady McPhail and seniors Hallie Porterfield and Samantha Rogers.
“The women’s field is deep,” Kindt said. “If they’re in the top five, they’re getting in, which shows you how deep the talent is and the quality of teams.”
The top two teams in each regional secure automatic bids to the championship and the first four regional finishers from an automatic qualifying or at-large team also secure an auto-bid to the championships.
If a team does not secure an automatic bid, it will rely on the NCAA DI Cross Country Subcommittee to select it as one of the 13 at-large teams. Only two individuals at-large are selected.
“We’re going in with some depth and I’ve had to make some tough decisions as far as who gets to race in this meet, but those are great problems to have heading into championship season,” Kindt said.
Meet results can be found at pttiming.com and live-streamed at ESPN+.com.