NCAA.com Division II Cross Country Championships
ABILENE – Abilene Christian cross country runners Alyse Goldsmith and Chloe Susset will be making their NCAA Championship debuts Saturday when they tackle the 6K course located along the picturesque Spokane River in Eastern Washington.
The race is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. PT/1 p.m. CT under partly cloudy skies and a high temperature of 25 degrees. Friday's forecast is calling for snow showers.
The Wildcat tandem qualified for the national meet following its tremendous performance two weeks ago in Wichita Falls, Texas, where Susset won the South Central Regional title in 21:37.90 and Goldsmith finished close behind with a fourth-place mark of 21:50.70.
Susset is ACU's sixth individual regional champion over the last 10 years, joining a group that also includes Yuliya Stashkiv (2003), Adeh Mwamba (2004), Trina Cox (2005), Winrose Karunde (2007, 2008) and Anais Belledant (2010).
The regional victory was Susset's second of the year on the Wichita Falls course, as she also won the Midwestern State Invitational held there on Oct. 8 (22:01.1). She and Goldsmith then went on to finish second and third at the Lone Star Conference Championship with marks of 21:51 and 22:09.
Goldsmith and Susset are two of 19 individual competitors at this year's championship who will be encompassed by 24 teams of seven student-athletes, bringing the women's field to approximately 187 competitors. Following the race, awards will be presented at a banquet to the top four men's and women's teams, along with the top fifteen runners from the men's and women's races.
The NCAA course, which is located within the Plantes Ferry Athletic Complex, is a spectator friendly all grass course with several six-feet asphalt perpendicular crossings. The starting stretch lasts 600 meters, while the straight finish stretches for 200m.
The championships will be streamed lived on NCAA.com. To access the live stream, go to
www.NCAA.com. A link to view the races will be available on the day of the championships.
More on the championships will be posted throughout the week on USTFCCCA.org.
