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Rotich aims for national bid

PORTALES — Like the events that populate it, the college cross country season is less a sprint than a marathon. There’s often little you can do in the last 10 percent of the season to override what you did in the first 90 percent.

Entering Saturday’s Division II South Central Regional championship, the Eastern New Mexico women’s and men’s teams can still accomplish plenty of goals. But there’s no illusion either team will end Saturday with a bid to the Dec. 1 national championship meet in Pittsburgh.

The men’s 10K begins at 10:30 a.m., with the women’s 6K to follow at 11:45 a.m. at Metropolitan State in Denver.

Division II includes eight regions, and the top three teams in each regional championship receive an automatic national bid. Another 10 teams are selected at large, based on selection criteria that is longer than this story and available on the NCAA website. Those at-large spots are likely all to be spoken for, because at least 10 top-25 teams will finish fourth or worse in their regionals.

The South Central region — which includes the Lone Star, Rocky Mountain Athletic and Heartland conferences — is home to the top two-ranked schools in the nation (Adams State first, Western State second), four of the top nine and six of the top 25. None of those six teams are from the LSC.

Greyhound coach Jeff Kavalunas said it’s tough to imagine the Greyhound women, coming off a third-place finish at the LSC championships, getting one of those 34 team spots.

“One of our goals is to finish top 10 in the region,” Kavalunas said. “With Adams State, Western State and Dallas Baptist (No. 6) in there ... (qualifying as a team) would be a big upset. Individually, we’re certainly looking at Mercy (Rotich) competing for the top spots, with a chance of competing individually.”

After the 34 teams are invited, the process of inviting runners from all non-qualifying teams begins. At least 24 of those runners will be invited — the top two finishers from each region, plus eight at-large selections. There can be a handful more, because the top five runners from every regional get a national invite regardless of team status, and they don’t count against the eight at-large spots.

“I want to finish in the top 10 (overall) to be really sure,” Rotich said. “Usually top 15 (for our region qualify) is what I’ve heard, but I want to be top 10.”

There’s certainly a shot for Rotich, who holds the five fastest 6K times in school history — including the school-record of 17:37.7 in September’s Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival. Of ENMU’s five meets this season, she’s won two and been the top Division II finisher in the all five, including the Nov. 3 LSC championship.

Rotich didn’t run in 2017, but won the 2016 regional and finished sixth nationally.

She’s not all that concerned about predicted inclement weather for Saturday, noting the 2016 regional had similar conditions.

“Right now, I’m feeling great,” Rotich said. “I’m ready. My concern right now is really the competition from the other runners. Everyone will be cold. It will affect us all. It’s not about the weather.”

Evaline Cheptoo and Mason Swanson, who finished sixth and ninth in the LSC championship meet, are running well and expected to hold their own, but would have to run an incredible race to get a qualifying spot.

There are fewer illusions of championship finishes for the men, coming off of a seventh-place finish at the LSC championships.

“We really want to be in that top 17,” Kavalunas said. “Last year the guys came back and did well at the regional meet. We’ll see if this year, we can do the same. Maybe we can beat one or two of those teams that beat us at the Lone Star.”

The men are led by Shane Walsh, 22nd in the LSC meet at 26:58.6.

The weather is likely to be in the 30-degree range for the meet, with a chance of light snow. The Greyhounds plan to leave Portales Thursday, split the trip over two days and get a practice run in Friday.

“The terrain is in a park, so it’s pretty flat and grass,” Kavalunas said. “The weather changes how fast it is. If we get snow and it’s wet, we’re probably not going to run very fast.”

 
 
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