NNU FRESHMAN BARAK WATSON TO COMPETE AT THE NCAA DIVISION II MEN’S AND WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Committee has announced the participants for the 2009 NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships. In order to be eligible to participate in the championships, teams and individuals had to qualify in their respective NCAA region Northwest Nazarene freshman Barak Watson will race at the Championships after finishing 11^th at the NCAA II West Regional Championships held two weeks ago in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park.

A total of 368 participants (184 men and 184 women) will compete in the championships.  All regions automatically qualified two teams of seven student-athletes each.  Additional berths were awarded to the regions with the first eight team finishers at the 2008 NCAA Division II Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships.

All regions automatically qualify the top two individuals from non-qualifying teams.  In addition, all individual competitors who finish in the top five overall places in their respective regional meet and are not a member of a qualifying team automatically advance to the championships.

The University of Southern Indiana will host the championships, November 21, at University of Southern Indiana Cross Country Course in Evansville, Indiana.  The women’s race will begin at noon Central time followed by the men’s race at 1 p.m. Central time.

Watson is the first NNU male to qualify for the NCAA Division II cross country meet in school history.

On Saturday the top 40 individual finishers in each race will earn NCAA Performance All- American honors.

Course Map:

http://www.usi.edu/sports/xcc_championships/mens10k_map09.pdf

Meet Information and Final Results:

http://www.usi.edu/sports/XCC_Championships/index.asp