Arkansas set to defend nine-year region win streak in Waco
Traveling to Waco, Texas, for the first time since 2013 for the NCAA South Central Region meet, No. 8 Arkansas will compete over a 6,000m distance on the Cottonwood Creek golf course at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 12.
Live results will be available through deltatiming.com at the following link: http://results.deltatiming.com/xc/2021-ncaa-d1-xc-south-central-regional
The top two teams from each of the nine regions contested automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships, which will be held in Tallahassee, Florida, on Saturday, November 20. In addition to the 18 teams who auto qualify, the rest of the 31-team field will be completed with 13 at-large selections.
“We will go in, no doubt, as the favorite and probably a heavy favorite,” said Arkansas women’s head coach Lance Harter. “Which gives us some flexibility as far as who we want to run in our line-up of seven. It’s the luxury of alternates being available, which is a tribute to the depth we have as a team.
“No matter who runs, we will probably make this more of a controlled race scenario with the intention that we ultimately want to be ready to attack eight days later in the NCAA Championships.”
Having won the South Central Region meet 24 times dating back to 1982, the Razorbacks have captured the past nine titles and claimed 14 of the past 20. In the 2019 version of the meet, Arkansas produced a perfect score of 15 points at Agri Park prior to winning its first NCAA Championship in cross country that season.
Texas has been runner-up to the Razorbacks in the past three region meets held, and eight times since 2000. The Longhorns have a total of six region titles, most recently in 2010.
Teams are limited to seven runners in the region meet, and Arkansas will select its seven from the following nine runners: Krissy Gear, Lauren Gregory, Gracie Hyde, Logan Jolly, Julia Paternain, Carmie Prinsloo, Corie Smith, Meghan Underwood and Isabel Van Camp.
“Cutting down to only having seven racing will be a new experience for a lot of our girls, because we’ve always had large numbers of teammates to race with during the regular season and in the conference meet,” said Harter.
Gregory and Hyde are the lone Razorbacks with racing experience at a South Central meet among this group while Arkansas transfers on the team have experience from other regionals. Waco serves as host of the South Central for the first time since 2013.
“Racing on this course will be a new experience for our group,” noted Harter. “It’s a fair course and challenging to some degree, probably a medium in terms of a course challenge. We’re looking forward to the opportunity to secure our position in the national championship.”
In 2018, after her bronze medal finish in the SEC Championships, Gregory was third among the Razorback squad and third overall in the region meet. In 2017, Gregory placed 13th in the race and was Arkansas’ fifth runner.
Hyde competed in the 2018 and 2019 South Central Region with Central Arkansas, placing 44th and 39th, respectively.
Gear, who earned a cross country All-America honor last November, previously raced in the Southeast Region three times with Furman, her highest finish being 12th in 2019. Joining Gear in the Southeast Region was Jolly while at Clemson, also racing three times with a best placing of sixth in 2018.
Paternain raced twice in the Mid-Atlantic region while at Penn State, finishing ninth in 2019.
South Central Region Rankings | November 1
1. Arkansas, 2. Texas, 3. Abilene Christian, 4. Rice, 5. LSU, 6. Texas A&M, 7. Arkansas State, 8. SMU, 9. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 10. New Orleans.
Individual Winners | Arkansas (13)
2019 – Taylor Werner, 2018 – Katrina Robinson, 2017 – Nikki Hiltz, 2016 – Devin Clark, 2015 – Dominique Scott, 2014 – Dominique Scott, 2001 – Andreina Byrd, 2000 – Lilli Kleinmann, 1998 – Amy Yoder Begley, 1995 – Megan Flowers, 1994 – Megan Flowers, 1993 – Deena Drossin, 1989 – Jackie Mota.
