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C-USA Set for NCAA Cross Country Action
XC NCAA Action

Nov. 14, 2011

IRVING, Texas - Conference USA will be sending one team and seven individual qualifiers to the 2011 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships. Indiana State will host the Championships, Monday, Nov. 21, at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course located at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind.

The men's race will begin at approximately 12:08 p.m. ET, followed by the women's race at approximately 12:58 p.m. A live webcast of the championships will be broadcast from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 21, on NCAA.com. In addition, highlights from the championships will be included as part of the CBS NCAA Fall Seasonal Show scheduled to air on Saturday, Dec. 18 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. ET on CBS HD.

Tulsa's seven-member men's team will be competing at nationals along with senior female runner Paula Whiting. The program tied the school record for best finish of third at the Midwest Regional Saturday. For their efforts, they will be the first men's team since 2008 to compete at nationals for the Golden Hurricane and C-USA.

Seniors Tom Marshall, Paulo Pinheiro and Carl Stones, juniors Geraint Davies and Andrew Heyes, and redshirt freshmen Dennis Hodapp and Danny Thater will represent TU on Monday.

Whiting was selected as an at-large individual on the women's side after finishing third at the regional with a time of 20:54.33. That finish matches her mark from last year, which also tied the school record for best finish by a female runner at a regional event.

Joining Whiting at nationals will be Mountain Region and South Central Region individual champions Risper Kimaiyo of UTEP and Silje Fjortoft of SMU, respectively. In addition, Rice senior Becky Wade, who finished second to Fjortoft, also earned an at-large berth to the final cross country race of the season.

All-American Kimaiyo became the first female in program and C-USA history to claim back-to-back regional titles. She won the 2011 event with a time of 20:35 in Provo, Utah.

This will be Fjortoft's third NCAA Championship appearance in the last five seasons. The redshirt senior and the two-time C-USA individual champion (2011, 2008) led the way from start to finish in the 6k race and clocked a final time of 19:59.1, despite windy weather conditions. Her time was 26 seconds ahead of Wade who posted a mark of 20:25.6. Fjortoft remains undefeated on the season, winning six-consecutive races. This will be Wade's fourth trip to the NCAA Championship.

On the men's side, the league will send Elkana Rotich of UTEP, Wesley Ruttoh of Houston as well as Marshall¡¯s Matthew Schiffbauer to nationals.

Rotich will be making his second trip to the NCAAs after crossing the finish line with a 10K time of 31:03 to place 14th overall at the Mountain Regional. With a sixth-place finish (30:54) at the South Central Regional, Ruttoh automatically qualified for Houston. He is the first Cougar to run at nationals since Sesar Figueroa in 2005. Schiffbauer finished 10th at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional with a time of 30:50.0. His 10th-place time bested the 11th-place runner by a mere .1 seconds for the final spot at the national meet. He is the first Marshall runner to advance to nationals in more than 30 years.

In order to be eligible to participate in the championships, teams and individuals qualified in their respective NCAA regional competitions. Thirty-one teams were selected to participate in each championship. The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the nine regions, for a total of 18 teams. Thirteen additional teams were selected at-large. Thirty-eight individuals were selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. All individual qualifiers finished in the top 25 in their region.

2011 C-USA NCAA CROSS COUNTRY REGIONAL TEAM FINISHES
Men's Teams
3. Tulsa - Midwest
6. Rice - South Central
7. Houston - South Central
11. UTEP - Mountain
14. Marshall - Mid-Atlantic
14. Memphis - South
17. Tulane - South Central

Women's Teams
4. SMU - South Central
5. Rice - South Central
8. Tulsa - Midwest
11. East Carolina - Southeast
12. UAB - South
14. UTEP - Mountain
17. Houston - South Central
18. Tulane - South Central
18. Memphis - South
20. Southern Miss - South
24. Marshall - Mid-Atlantic
24. UCF - South

2011 C-USA ALL-REGIONAL HONOREES
Men
Wesley Ruttoh, Houston
Mathew Schiffbauer, Marshall
Paulo Pinheiro, Tulsa
Gerraint Davies, Tulsa
Carl Stones, Tulsa
Elkana Rotich, UTEP
Justice Chirchir, UTEP

Women
Brittany Copeland, East Carolina
Becky Wade, Rice
Allison Pye, Rice
Silje Fjortoft, SMU
Kristine Eikrem-Engeset, SMU
Mary Alenbratt, SMU
Paula Whiting, Tulsa
Risper Kimoiyo, UTEP