SHAWNEE – Bison Cross Country is back in motion for the 2024 NCAA Central Region Championship.
In the recent weeks, the OBU Men and Women's Cross Country teams competed in the GAC Championship. The Women's team finished 4
th overall and
Sophia Strange claimed first place with an impressive 18:22.32, almost 15 seconds ahead of second place.
The Women's team had two top 20 finishes,
Jade Robinson being the second runner across for OBU, placing 20
th with a 19:31.77 finish.
In the 2023 season,
Sophia Strange placed 7
th at the NCAA Central Region Championship, earning her way onto nationals and later becoming an All-American.
This year's NCAA Central Region Championship will see participation from Strange,
Kaylen King,
McKayla Schmitt,
Jade Robinson,
Shayna Hendrix,
Kieran Paxton and
Jadyn Pavlik. The Bison head into the challenge with Strange seeing her fourth NCAA Regional appearance. Last season, she posted a personal-best time of 21:00.2 before besting that at the NCAA Championship (20:37.0). That led her to become just the third Bison to claim All-America recognition.
Strange is accompanied by the following, here is a look at their track record heading into the meet.
King: 3
rd appearance, last years' time: 23:14.8
Robinson: 3
rd appearance, last years' time: 22:48.30
Pavlik: 3
rd appearance, last years' time: 23:17.4
Hendrix: 2
nd appearance, last years' time: 21:12.6
Paxton: 1
st appearance
Schmitt: 1
st appearance
''I'm hoping to finish in the top 15 in the region. I have seniors that will toe the line the last time at regionals and with the exception of Sophia, the last time at OBU in cross country. Our goal this year is to be top-five and to see how close we can be to winning the region. I believe Sophia has a good shot at advancing individually."- Brian Whitlock
A season ago, the men claimed a 14th place team finish while the women were slotted 13th.
Qualifying for nationals brings different standards each season. From the NCAA: "the top three, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the eight regions, for a total of 24 teams. Ten additional teams were selected at-large. A minimum of 24 additional individuals were selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process."
The men are led by
Maxamillian Wheeler who has competed in four straight regional championships. Two seasons ago at Missouri Southern, OBU's top runner turned in a career-best 10K performance. He clocked in at 29:56.3 and placed 18th.
Joining Wheeler are
Carson Kardokus,
Emery Crayton,
James Williams,
Corbin Galt,
Ethan Banks and
Jaden Redmond.
Here is info on those runners heading into Saturday.
Kardokus: 3rd regional appearance; best finish: 2022 (31.44.6)
Crayton: 2nd regional appearance; clocked a 32:17.2 last year at MSSU.
Williams: 3rd regional appearance; best finish: 2022 (32:16.0)
Galt: 1st regional appearance
Banks: 2nd regional appearance; posted a time of 36:57.8 last season
Redmond: 1st regional appearance
Here are coach
Brian Whitlock's thoughts leading into the men's race:
"Our men are currently ranked ninth in one of the toughest regions. For four consecutive weeks, we were ranked seventh in the region which is the highest ranking for our men's program in the D2 era. Our hope all year has been to be in the hunt for nationals, which we are. If we finish fourth, which is our goal, we'll have a great shot. If our team does not qualify, our hope is that Max becomes the first individual male to make D2 nationals. He has a great shot to do this, and our expectation is that he gets the automatic individual spot by finishing in the top-five. Furthermore, I have two more runners hoping to accomplish all region: Kardokus and Crayton. They'll need to be in the top-25. Both guys have had great seasons."
