每日大赛

Men's and women's cross country teams named back-to-back regional champions, advance to national competition

The 每日大赛 men's and women's cross-country teams will travel to Iowa this weekend to compete in the national championship, after winning the TCCAA Region 7 Championship for a second consecutive year in October.

Both teams will compete in the NJCAA Cross Country Championship on Nov. 8, and a handful of the same student-athletes will run again Nov. 11 in the Half Marathon Championships.

“I love working with these runners,” said Coach Emily Roy. “It’s an honor and a privilege to get to experience their running career in college, and get to know them, and see their successes and failures and try to work to develop them as better runners.”

The championship will cap off a winning season that began all the way back in August for the Panthers. The women’s and men’s cross country teams will run 5 kilometers and 8 kilometers, respectively.

Roy credited the teams’ success to first-year students, who she said jumped in with great attitudes, dedication and teamwork from the start, and steady improvement among student-athletes as the season progressed.

“Our cross country teams are back-to-back regional champions,” said Panther Athletics Director Brock Evans. “That’s amazing. We are setting the standard for our area, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

Freshman Jeremiah Jones said it was super exciting to win at the regional level.

“I think our whole team had a lot of confidence in each other,” he said. “We all knew that, really, it was ours. The mentality of it was that it was our title to win, that we just had to go out and get it – that we put in the work all season for it because of who we are as a team.”

He appreciates the environment that’s been built in the program, Jones said, one in which he and his teammates push each other and that emphasizes the importance of being mentally tough.

“I love it,” he said. “I love the team. It’s been great so far, and I’ve had a really good experience.”