University of Tennessee Athletics
XC CENTRAL: South Region Championships
November 11, 2015 | Track & Field
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee cross country teams head to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to compete in Friday's 2015 NCAA South Regional Championships at Harry Pritchett Running Park.
The women's 6K championship race is at 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET. The men's 10K championship race is at 10 a.m. CT/11 a.m. ET.
More Info
- When: Friday, Nov. 13, 2015
- Race Times: Women's 6K - 9 a.m. CT/10 a.m. ET, Men's 10K - 10 a.m. CT/11 a.m. ET
- Where: Harry Pritchett Running Park (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
- Live Results: Xpress Timing
UT Men's Regional History
- Team: 1st (1975, 1976, 1978, 1988, 1994, 1995, 2002)
- Individual: 1st (George Watts 1977; Doug Tolson 1984; Tony Cosey 1994, 1995)
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UT Women's Regional History
- Team: 1st (1977-AIAW, 1983, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005)
- Individual: 1st (Brenda Webb 1977-AIAW; Sharon Dickie 2000)
A total of 31 teams compete as a team at the 2015 NCAA Division I Championships on Nov. 21 at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. Eighteen team bids are automatic (top two teams in each region) and 13 bids are at-large. After the advancing teams have been determined, 38 additional individuals per gender are selected to compete at the NCAA Championships. The top four finishers at each regional who are not on teams selected by the aforementioned process are automatically selected, but they must have finished within the top 25 of the region.
Senior All-American Chelsea Blaase is coming off of a second-place finish at the 2015 SEC Championships, battling through rainy conditions in College Station, Texas, to earn All-SEC honors with a time of 19:40.90 in the 6K race. Blaase finished second at the 2014 NCAA South Region Championships in Tallahassee, Fla., with a career-best 6K time of 19:26.20.
"Last week was a great week of training," Tennessee Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "Chelsea is feeling good. She goes in seeded as the favorite and I think she will handle that extremely well. She has raced on this course numerous times. She feels comfortable with it. We look at this as the qualifying round. It's the regional championship and a very important first round first round to the NCAAs. It's the qualifier to the final and that's how she will approach this race."
Blaase has posted three top-three finishes in all three of the races she has competed in this fall, winning the Greater Louisville Classic 5K Blue Race (17:04.50), taking third at the Pre-Nationals 6K Red Race (20:02.60) and placing second at the SEC Championships. She has posted 10 top-10 finishes and nine top-3s over her last 10 races.
Like last month's SEC Championships, Friday's South Regional will be a great learning experience for the young women's squad. Sisters Julia Rizor and Jessica Rizor have made strides with each race and have consistently been UT's No. 2 or No. 3 runners behind Blaase all season.
One of the challenges of the NCAA regional and championship races is the men's switch from 8K to 10K. That extra 2K not featured in most regular-season races is an X-factor for both experienced and young runners.
"The men go to 10K; so you lay it all out there, but it's also a different race," Sullivan said. "The nice thing about the regional championship is that it runs as a qualifier and people run it somewhat conservatively to make sure that they can close the race down and be in the right position when they are in the final mile. Our guys are good at that and it will be great experience for our young guys to get a full 10K on their legs and put themselves in position to get ready for the sport in the future."
On the men's squad, senior Kyle Walter and freshman Zach Long have been the Vols' top two runners this season. Walter has been steady this fall and has the team's fastest 8K time of the year, a 24:29.40 he clocked at Pre Nationals in Louisville last month. He came very close to qualifying for the NCAA Championships at the 2014 South Regional, finishing 27th with a 10K time of 31:44.80.
Long has burst onto the scene as a freshman, earning Men's SEC All-Freshman Team honors at the league championship meet when he led the team with an 8K time of 24:56.90. A two-time SEC Men's Freshman of the Week, Long has gotten better with each race and looks to continue that trend this Friday.
For seniors Blaase, Walter, Caroline Duer and Jack Little, the regional could be the last or second-to-last cross country race of their collegiate careers.
"The seniors will go out there and lay everything they have got left into a great performance," Sullivan said. "The top 25 are considered all-region honorees and Kyle came very close to that last year. So to achieve that would be icing on the cake for him."
Tennessee's coaches and veterans are familiar with the courses at Harry Pritchett Running Park as it was the site of the 2014 SEC Championships. The Vols hope to capitalize on their course familiarity and Friday's expected good weather (50s and mostly sunny by race time).
"It's a fair course," Sullivan said. "It's challenging. It has one pretty-good-sized hill that the men will see three times and the women will see twice. It is fair but challenging."
Players Mentioned
