Marquette Cross Country Travels to NCAA Great Lakes Regional

MILWAUKEE – The Marquette University men's and women's cross country teams head to Terre Haute, Indiana, on Friday, Nov. 9, to compete in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships hosted by Indiana State.

The championship races held at the Lavern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course are set to begin with the women's 6-kilometer race at 10:15 a.m. Central time followed by the men's race and the first 10-kilometer distance this year at 11:15 a.m. CT.

"The Great Lakes Regional is one of the most competitive regionals from top-to-bottom in NCAA Division I," Marquette head coach Mike Nelson said. "Overall, I think both teams are prepared to have their best races of the season. Workouts have gone well and our athletes are in good spirits and highly-motivated. We're going into this meet loose, but also focused."

Marquette is coming off a successful performance at the BIG EAST Conference Championships on Oct. 27. The men turned in their best-ever finish, taking fourth place, while both junior Daniel Pederson (ninth) and senior Jon Klaiber (14th) earned All-BIG EAST honors.

The women's team persevered with solid race performances despite seven-of-10 starters experiencing their first BIG EAST championship meet. They were led by senior Mary Hanson's 29th-place finish.

The Golden Eagles are looking to top last year's performances, where the women's team placed 12th out of 31 teams and the men took 14th in a field of 26.
This marks the second-straight year the regional will take place at Lavern Gibson and the third-consecutive year Marquette will race on it.

"I like this course a lot," Nelson said. "It's a very fair course with plenty of room to run and there's not a lot of things to worry about like tight turns or a ditch you have to be concerned about. There's ample running room to make moves and pass people. I like that it has a very long straight-away at the beginning to allow runners to establish position and a long straight-away at the finish. What a great way to finish a race."

The top-two teams in each of the NCAA's nine regions advance to the NCAA Championships on in Madison on Nov. 17, along with 13 additional at-large teams selected by the NCAA. Each of the top-25 individual finishers at Friday's meet will receive all-region recognition with the top-four individuals not on a qualifying team advancing to the NCAA Championships.

Keep up with the Marquette cross country program through social media by following on Twitter (@MUTFXC) and Instagram (@MUTFXC) and `liking' on Facebook (/MUTFXC).

Marquette Regional Championship Entries
Women
Mary Hanson
Caitlin McGauley
Kendall Pfrimmer
Emily Foley
Amy Gasperlin
Nora Keller
Mary Rose Flood
Emma Moravec

Men
Daniel Pederson
Jon Klaiber
Ryan Burd
Alex Gill
Patrick Bruch
Danny Peterson
Matt Cavanaugh
Henry Mierzwa