Men's XC | 11/17/2016 1:07:00 PM

ELSAH, Illinois -- Junior Douglas Negrete will represent WVU Tech at the 61^st annual NAIA Men's Cross Country National Championship after qualifying during the River States Conference (RSC) Championship with a fourth place finish.

"The 2016 campaign was a step-up season for Doug and he is really starting to show his capabilities," stated head coach Bruce Cox. "Assistant Coach Jeremy Bloom and I are very pleased that Doug has earned the right to run at the NAIA National Championship and know he will be a great representative of WVU Tech and the River States Conference." 

Negrete will run an 8K at the North Farms Cross Country Course in Elsah, Illinois Saturday, November 19 beginning at 12:30 p.m.

During the RSC Championship (November 5), the Chino, California native finished with a time of 26:58.3 in a field of 83 runners which earned him a spot on the All-RSC first team.

"When Doug arrived last year from community college, the decision was made to red-shirt him, knowing that his academics would take three years to complete at WVU Tech," said Coach Cox. "That gave us a more mature leader and allowed him to further develop his distance running abilities. Needless to say, we are extremely pleased with his performances, but probably more so, his leadership with our young squad."

Men's Qualifiers Highlights

• The field is made up of 24 automatic qualifiers, 11 at-large berths and one host berth. A team received an automatic bid by winning the conference meet or was the meet runner-up.
• In addition to the team qualifiers, 86 athletes compete as individuals at this year's championships.
• To qualify as an individual, you must be a top four finisher, top six finisher or top two finisher depending on the size of the conference.
• Geoffrey Kipchumba of William Carey (Miss.) returns as the defending individual champion with a race time of 23:55 at the 2015 National Championship.

 

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