Alabama
NCAA South Regional Championships
Alabama Cross Country Continues Postseason with NCAA South Regional Friday in Huntsville
11/10/2022 1:31:00 PM | Track & Field, Cross Country
The Crimson Tide will return to Huntsville, Ala., for the second time this season to compete in the regional with a chance to advance to the NCAA Championships
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Southeastern Conference champion Alabama men's and women's cross country teams are set to continue postseason competition Friday at the NCAA South Regional Championships in Huntsville, Ala.
The women's race, which covers 6-kilometers, gets underway at 8:30 a.m. CT, while the men's 10-kilometer race begins at 9:30 a.m. This marks the second year in a row that the South Regional has been held at the John Hunt Cross Country Running Park.
The top-two team finishers at the regional automatically advance to the NCAA Championships, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 19 in Stillwater, Okla.
Alabama and Last Year's Regional
- Victor Kiprop, Eliud Kipsang and Hillary Cheruiyot finished 3-4-5 in the men's race in 2021, pacing the Tide to a 79-point, second-place team finish
- Paul Selden (30th) and Carson Burian (37th) rounded out the UA men's scoring five
- Mercy Chelangat ran away with the women's race, posting a 19:34.74 to finish more than seven seconds ahead of the field, becoming the Crimson Tide's first individual regional champion since 1980 in the process
- Flomena Asekol and Esther Gitahi took sixth and seventh, respectively, to give UA three top-10 finishers
- Jami Reed (30th) and Megan Patton (56th) rounded out Alabama's scoring five
2022 SEC Champions - The Women
- The Alabama women were dominant in winning their first SEC Cross Country title since going back-to-back in 1986 and 1987, totaling 36 points and finishing 38 points ahead of the field
- Alabama put four runners in the top-seven finishers, including Mercy Chelangat (18:33.65) and Hilda Olemomoi (18:54.11) in second and third, respectively
- Amaris Tyynismaa (19:06.93) finished in fifth while Flomena Asekol (19:25.24) took seventh
- Rounding out the Tide's scoring five, Elka Machan (20:29.12) clinched the UA victory with a 19th-place finish
- The Alabama women have now won three SEC team titles (1986, 1987 and 2022)
- The Crimson Tide's 2022 victory marked the first time since 2012 that Arkansas has not won the SEC women's team title
2022 SEC Champions - The Men
- With the women's title in the books, Alabama turned right around and did it again, winning the men's titles with 59 points in one of the tightest SEC men's races in conference history
- Alabama beat Tennessee and Arkansas, which tied for second place, by five points with matching 64s, while Ole Miss was fourth with 65 points
- Victor Kiprop (22:38.94) led the UA men, winning the individual race by nearly four seconds
- Kiprop was followed by Hillary Cheruiyot (22:51.42) in fourth and Eliud Kipsang (23:18.84) in seventh
- Brady Grant (23:48.63) came in 19th place, leaving it to the fifth and final scoring slot to secure the Tide's victory
- Jacob Harris (24:12.76) gutted out a 28th place finish to secure Alabama's second championship trophy of the morning
- The title was the fourth for the UA men's program after also winning in 1973, 2008 and 2009
- Kiprop's title was the men's 13th individual SEC title and fifth since 2015
All-SEC Honors
- The 2022 Southeastern Conference Champion Alabama men's and women's teams earned seven First Team All-SEC honors to go with a pair of SEC All-Freshman honorees
- Half of the first-team honors were collected by Alabama, including four women and three men. The 2022 individual SEC champion, Victor Kiprop, was joined on the men's first-team list by Hillary Cheruiyot and Eliud Kipsang. On the women's side of the slate, Alabama put four on the first team, including Mercy Chelangat, Hilda Olemomoi, Amaris Tyynismaa and Flomena Asekol.
- Olemomoi and Will Pinson also earned SEC All-Freshman honors
Up Next
- The NCAA Championships will bring the 2022 cross country season to a close Saturday, Nov. 19 in Stillwater, Okla.
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Players Mentioned
