NOVEMBER 9, 2017

MONARCH CROSS COUNTRY TEAMS TO COMPETE AT NCAA REGIONAL

WILKES-BARRE, PA --- The King's College cross country teams will be in action on Saturday at Big Spring High School in Newville, PA where they will compete in the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships.

The men's 8,000 meter race will start at 11:00 a.m. followed by the women's 6,000 meter race at 12:15 p.m.

Meet information, including directions, course maps, and results can be found on the Championship Central page.

The men's team will look to finish the season on a high note after a 10th place finish at the Middle Atlantic Conference Championships two weeks ago. Fielding one of the youngest teams in the conference, four of King's seven runners will be competing in their first NCAA Championship event. Earlier in the season King's got a good look at the Regional course when they competed in the Dickinson Long-Short Invitational even though all the Monarchs ran the 4,000 meter course. The Monarchs drew a starting box of 46 out of 57 meaning they will start the race near the edge of the course and have to work their way towards the middle. The Monarchs will look to improve on their 32nd place finish at last year's Regional.

Nilang Suthar was the Monarchs top finisher at the MAC Championships and will look to improve on his 140th place finish at the Regional Championship as a freshman. This season his best time is 28:19.90 which he ran at Gettysburg. Suthar ran his best 4K time on this course earlier this year while his top 8K time happened at last year's Mideast Regional at DeSales. Daniel Michels is coming off his best race of the year with a time of 29:14.70 two weeks ago. Michael Duncklee was King's third finisher at the conference championships and will look to improve upon his 246th place finish last year where he ran his career best time. This season Duncklee ran a season-best time of 29:18.70 at Gettysburg and ran a career best 4K time at Big Spring.

Michael Havrilla has run King's second-best 8K time this year with a 28:51.60 at Notre Dame and will look to improve on his 194th place finish last year where he ran a career best time of 27:57.0 at DeSales. He ran his best 4K time at Big Spring earlier this year. Adam Bahrey was King's fifth finisher at the MAC Championships finishing in 30:41.6, his best time of the year. Steffen Hude finished right behind him at the Championship but has run a top time of 30:08.6 at Gettysburg. Matt Schoch will be King's seventh runner and ran his best time of the year at Gettysburg where he ran a 31:11.0.

The women's team drew a little better starting box than the men and will start out of box 20 out of 61. The women are coming off a program record fourth place finish at the MAC Championships and will look to improve upon their 27th place finish last year and hopefully qualify one or two individuals for the NCAA Division III National Championship meet. In order to qualify for the National Championship meet as an individual a runner must finish among the top seven runners in the region who are not on teams that qualify. The top two teams automatically qualify for the championship meet and then 16 at-large teams from all the regions will be selected by a committee.

Tara Johnson is coming off a seventh place finish and a season-best time of 23:42.1 at MACs. She will look to improve on her 71st place finish as a freshman at the Regional Championships where she ran a career best time of 23:23.0. Johnson ran the 4K course at Big Spring High School earlier this season. Marissa Durako will look to make a return trip to the National Championship meet after becoming King's first-ever runner to qualify for the Championship in 2015. Coincidentally, Big Spring is the site of her career best and school record time of 22:09.4 she ran at the 2015 Mideast Regional Championship that qualified her for the National Championship. Durako finished eighth at that meet. This year her top time also happened at Big Spring when she ran a 23:35.0 at the Long-Short Invitational. Two weeks ago Durako finished 11 seconds behind Johnson in ninth place at the MAC Championships and both runners will look to work together again to achieve more success on Saturday.

Cera Gaston is coming off her best time of the year after finishing in 24:32.9 at the MAC Championships. Earlier this season she ran a time of 24:36.1 at the Long-Short Invitational. Tara Weitz ran the best time of her career two weeks ago crossing the line in 25:33.4. The junior will look to improve her 226th place finish at last year's regional and her time of 27:15.60 as a freshman at Big Spring in the Regional Championship. Gabrielle Longchamp finished right behind Weitz at the MAC Championships but has run a career best time of 25:19.5 at Gettysburg this year. She will look to improve upon her 313th place finish at last year's Championships and her time of 26:48.6 as a freshman. Both Weitz and Longchamp ran the 4K race at the Long-Short Invitational earlier this year.

Morgan Albrecht was King's sixth finisher at MACs running her best time of the year with a 25:55.80. Earlier this season the junior ran a 26:22.4 on the Big Spring course and she will look to improve her 175th place finish at her first Regional last year where she ran a career best time of 25:19.0 at DeSales. Kelsie Canessa will be King's seventh runner after a strong freshman campaign where she has achieved a season-best time of 25:32.60 at Gettysburg. She ran the 4K course at Big Spring earlier this year.