UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's and women's cross country teams qualified for the NCAA Division II Championship held on December 2 at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, Wash. Seattle Pacific University will play host for the event.
This is the first time in Cardinal cross country history that both the men's and women's teams have qualified for the national race in the same season.
On the men's side, SVSU made the NCAA race as a team most recently in 2018 and finished in sixth place. The highest team finish occurred in 2005 when the team placed fifth. The women's team claimed its second-consecutive bid after finishing 14th at last year's event. The best finish for the SVSU women came in 2013 with an 11th-place showing.
The NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Cross Country Committee selected 34 teams for each championship. The top three teams from each of the eight regions automatically qualified, along with ten additional at-large teams to complete the field. In addition, 24 individual athletes were selected to participate through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process.
The SVSU men's team ranked second in the Midwest Region following week 8 to earn an automatic qualifier, while the women's team was ranked fourth in the region and received an at-large selection.
A live webstream of the championships will occur on NCAA.com from 1:00 PM EST until the conclusion of the awards ceremony. The men's race will begin at 1:00 PM EST, followed by the women's race at 2:15 PM EST.
Click here for the complete list of NCAA DII qualifiers.