The UW Oshkosh men’s and women’s cross-country teams each took seventh place at the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, each missing out on the team qualifiers for the National Championship meet by five places.

The Titans will, however, send one male and two female runners to the D-III Championship meet in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday.

Cody Chadwick finished 11th at the meet, being awarded one of the at-large national bids for individuals on teams that did not qualify for the meet, while Ashton Keene and Hannah Lohrenz received at-large bids after finishing 17th and 19th respectively.

“Our NCAA qualifiers, Cody, Ashton and Hannah, recovered on Sunday and Monday by doing some easy running and some cross-training,” coach Eamon McKenna said. “They will have their last hard workout on Tuesday before doing some maintenance running the rest of the week to gear up for Nationals. All three are looking forward to the opportunity, and they will seek to end the season with their best races of the year.”

For those who did not qualify, they will be preparing for the upcoming track and field season, which starts with the UW Oshkosh Early Bird Invitational on Dec. 7.

“Much of the team immediately moves their attention toward the track,” McKenna said. “We will have a number of our distance runners competing in our first track and field meet at Kolf Sports Center on Dec. 7. We will look to capitalize on their fitness and strength at the end of the cross-country season to chase some personal records and produce some solid times to start off the official indoor track season.”

McKenna is looking forward to not only the national meet for cross-country, but also how the team prepares for the indoor track and field season.

“During track and field, I am looking forward to continuing to see our student-athletes grow as competitors,” he said. “We had a number of young runners who made large improvements this cross-country season, so it will be exciting to see how that manifests itself on the track. Specifically, we are hoping to have multiple NCAA qualifiers for the men and the women during both indoor and outdoor.
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