Men's Cross Country Looking to Peak at NCAA Regional Championships

Friday, November 10

Bethlehem, PA

11:45 AM

Rutgers University

NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships

Men's Cross Country Looking to Peak at NCAA Regional Championships

Nov 09 | Men's Cross Country

Championship Central Course Map Live Results Top Times

Mid-Atlantic Championships begin at 11:45 a.m. on Friday at Lehigh’s Goodman Campus

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (Nov. 9, 2017) – Rutgers men's cross country continues the 2017 postseason at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Championships on Friday, Nov. 10 at Lehigh's Goodman Campus. The 10,000-meter race – the first of that distance this season for the Scarlet Knights – begins at 11:45 a.m.

The Course
Rutgers will race the course at Lehigh's Goodman Campus for the third time this season, with a first place finish at the Lehigh Invitational on Sept. 2 and a 23^rd place out of 40 at the famous Paul Short Run on Sept. 29.

The picturesque Goodman Campus Cross Country Course starts on the north end of Goodman Campus, adjacent to College Drive. The course accommodates four course distances and navigates through a beautiful landscape of cornfields, green space, wooded areas and campus scenery.

Regarded as one of the best in the Northeast region and the nation, the course has hosted three NCAA National Championship meets (1979, 1983, 1993) as well as numerous NCAA Regional Championships. The Goodman Campus is scheduled to host the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals again in 2019 and 2021. The current (new) course is the second version of the Lehigh cross country course at Goodman Campus and has existed in its current layout since 1999.

The Competition
Twenty-six teams will compete for regional supremacy with automatic berths to the NCAA National Championships on the line. The top two teams will book a trip to nationals, while the top four individual finishers not competing on a national qualifying team will also make the trip to the NCAA Championships.

Rutgers enters the regional championships ranked No. 15 in the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic regional rankings. Atop that list are the 2017 favorites, Georgetown, who just won the BIG EAST Championship with 40 points and four runners in the Top 15. Princeton comes in ranking No. 2 in the region following its Ivy League Championship.

No. 6 Navy and No. 10 Saint Joseph's each earned runner-up team finishes at the Patriot League Championship and Atlantic 10 Championship, respectively, while No. 3 Penn, No. 4 Villanova, No. 7 Temple and No. 11 George Washington all finished third at their conference championships.

The Expectations
Hear from senior Luke Wiley, junior Conor Murphy and sophomore Cole Pschunder in the RVision preview of the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Championships …

The Last Time…
…Competing – The Scarlet Knights finished 12^th at the Big Ten Championships in Indiana. For the second straight year, Murphy paced RU in the conference championships. His 73rd place finish in 25:42.0 bettered his time from last season's Big Ten Championships by 13 seconds.

…At the Mid-Atlantic Championships – Rutgers scored its highest finish in the regional championship race, a 10^th place standing with 285 team points. Murphy was first across the line in 47^th in 31:43 on the 10K course at Penn State's Blue and White Golf Course.

…At Lehigh's Goodman Campus - Six Scarlet Knights posted personal records in the 8,000-meter run at the Paul Short Run, as Rutgers cross country placed 23rd of 40 teams in the College Gold division. Junior Dom Munson was the first Rutgers runner across the line by a hair in front of Wiley. Both teammates clocked official times of 24:49, but Munson edged Wiley's personal record time of 24:49 by a nose.

The Rank
Rutgers reached as high as No. 10 in the regional rankings by the USTFCCCA. The Scarlet Knights have not exited the rankings throughout the season, coming into the championships at No. 15.

The Squad
The current Scarlet Knights have plenty of regional championship experience with a combined 13 races. Not including freshmen, four RU harriers set new personal records in the 8K this season (sophomore Andrew Comito, Murphy, Pschunder and Wiley).

Munson paced the Scarlet Knights in back-to-back 8K's at the Rider Invitational and the Paul Short Run, although at Paul Short, Wiley was just a fraction of a second behind Munson. Pschunder led Rutgers in both races at Van Cortlandt Park, first at the Fordham Invitational, then at the Metropolitan Championships, which Rutgers won for the first time since 1986.

Follow Rutgers Athletics on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RutgersAthletics) and Twitter (@RUAthletics) for all of the latest news and updates. For specific updates regarding Rutgers men's cross country, follow the program on Twitter (@Rutgers_MensTF). The team is also on Facebook (facebook.com/ RutgersMensTF/).
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