Fayetteville, AR – (Contributed) – Arkansas State cross country begins postseason competition on Friday, Nov. 14, at the NCAA South Central Regional Championships in Fayetteville.
The meet, hosted by Arkansas, will be held at Agri Park and features 31 squads in the women’s race along with 32 in the men’s. The women’s 6K begins at 9 a.m., while the men’s 10K is slated for a 10 a.m. start.
Teams competing and individual entrants can be found by clicking here.
HOW IT WORKS:
The top two finishing teams at the regional championships earn automatic bids to the 31-team NCAA Cross Country Championships (18 total nationally), with 14 at-large teams filling out the rest of the field based upon regional finish and season results.
Individually, the first four finishers at the regional championships who do not belong to an automatic qualifier or an at-large team automatically advance to the championships. However, all four must finish within the top 25 of their region.
Altogether, 36 individuals automatically qualify, and two at-larges are chosen to total 38 individual selections. The two at-larges are the highest-placing runners at a regional who were not automatic qualifiers.
THREE THINGS TO NOTE:
CARLO ON THE GO: Carlo Martinez-Jaramillo became the 10th individual conference champion in program history and the eighth for the men’s team on Oct. 31 at the Sun Belt Cross Country Championships. A-State has produced an individual conference champion in back-to-back seasons for the first time since Steve Wilson secured consecutive titles in 1980-81.
CONFERENCE RECOGNITION: With a first-place finish in the men’s 8K at the SBC Cross Country Championships, Martinez-Jaramillo secured SBC Men’s Runner of the Year honors alongside a First Team All-Sun Belt selection. Noah Herrera, Joe Edwards, and Erika Kreuger secured Second Team All-Sun Belt distinctions while Mary Beth Bailey claimed Third Team All-Sun Belt recognition.
THE LAST TIME: In 2024, Jacob Pyeatt finished seventh in the men’s 10K with a career-best 29:24.8 to earn All-Region honors for the third time in his career. He secured an automatic bid as an individual qualifier to the NCAA Championships, while the men’s team finished 10th and the women’s team placed 13th out of 33 teams.
