Tartans Poised for Run at NCAA Championships

(INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.) – By winning the 2018 NCAA Mideast Regional Championship this past Saturday, the Carnegie Mellon University men's cross country team automatically qualified for the 2018 NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country Championships which will be hosted by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh at the Lake Breeze Golf Club in Winneconne, Wisconsin on Saturday, November 17. It marks the Tartans fifth straight team appearance at the championships and 12th in the last 13 years.

Carnegie Mellon won the regional meet by placing four runners in the top 20 and six in the top 35. Ranked seventh nationally heading into the meet, the Tartans worked together to race past the fourth- and sixth-ranked teams in the country for the program's third regional championship since 2008.

"Going into the Mideast Regional meet we were fairly confident that we would advance to the NCAA meet again based on our performance throughout the season," said fourth-year head coach Tim Connelly. "We knew we would face great competition for one of the two automatic berths, as both Haverford (4th) and Hopkins (6th) were ranked just ahead of us in the most recent coaches national poll, so we were very pleased to come out with the win. "This group is the healthiest and deepest team that we have had in my four years here, and they definitely feel that their best race of the season is ahead of them."

The women's race will begin at 12:15 p.m. ET, followed by the men's race at 1:15 p.m. ET.