AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn cross country trio of sophomores Nickson Chebii and Joshua Kosgei and junior Evan Hill will compete at the NCAA South Regional Cross Country Championships Friday, November 14 at the John Hunt Cross Country Course in Huntsville, Alabama. The three Tigers will race in the men’s 10k at 9:30 a.m. CT.
The south region is one of nine regions across the nation that will serve as a qualifier for the 2025 NCAA Championships, which is set for November 22 at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Missouri.
Earlier this season, the men raced at the course in Huntsville during the Southern Showcase, where they finished fourth overall.
“We’re excited to go back somewhere that we are familiar with,” Auburn cross country coach Aaron Kindt said. “It’ll be a big boost to go somewhere where we know the course from start to finish.”
The men’s squad will compete against 34 teams, including No. 9 Alabama, Florida, Florida State, No. 19 Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
Coming off a silver-medal finish at the SEC Championships, First-Team All-SEC runner Chebii leads the charge for the men as they head into the meet. The Elgeyo Marakwet, Kenya native delivered his best 8k of the season in Knoxville, crossing the line in 23:11.57. He delivered the best performance by an Auburn male at the meet since Ty McCormack also placed second in 2014.
Last season, Chebii placed eighth overall to earn All-Region honors and qualify for the national cross country championships.
Kosgei will make his regional debut. At the SEC Championships, he came in at 24:44.24, finishing 61st overall.
Hill will also make his first regional appearance for the Tigers. At the conference championships, he was the third scorer for the Tigers, running 25:22.59.
The top two teams from each regional automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships, along with the first four individual finishers who are not part of an advancing team.
Teams that do not earn an automatic bid will await possible selection as one of 13 at-large qualifiers by the NCAA DI Cross Country Subcommittee. In addition, two individual at-large runners will also be chosen to compete at NCAAs.
Meet results can be found at Deltatiming.com and the live-streamed on ESPN+.