Men's results (PDF) | Women's results (PDF)

ABILENE, Texas -- The SBU men's cross country team qualified for NCAA nationals for the first time in school history with a second place finish at the NCAA South Central Regional at Abilene Christian University. The Bearcats were led by Michael Pierce who took second in the 10K event with a time of 30:57.74.

Jeremy Glassmaker was 13th (32:01.22), Will Hansen was 16th (32:01.89), Shawn Etzenhouser was 25th (32:36.58) and Michael McCampbell was 27th (32:41.58) helping the Bearcats to the second place finish behind Missouri Southern, which swept both the men's and women's titles. Phillip Miller (40th) and Cameron Ayers (49th) also ran well for the Bearcats.

The top three men's teams advance to nationals from each region, and it was an MIAA sweep with Missouri Southern, SBU and Pittsburg State advancing from the South Central Region.

Pierce ran an average mile time of 4:59.0 to finish behind Abilene Christian All-American Amos Sang, who won the meet with a a time of 29:53.23. Pierce was an All-American in cross country in 2007 but missed last season due to injury. Pierce and former SBU standout runner T. Jay Sanderson qualified as individuals, but this was the first team from SBU to reach the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

The SBU women finished 15th out of 21 teams in the 6K race and were led by Andrea Owensby (66th - 24:09.14). Chelsea Strahm and Rebecca Brigance were 71st and 72nd respectively while Kristen Colon was right behind in 74th place. MIAA individual champion Kimi Shank of Missouri Southern won the NCAA regional event with a time of 20:59.05, and was joined by five other teammates in the top ten helping MSSU to the women's team title. Dallas Baptist joined the Lions as women's squads going to nationals.

The 2009 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships will be held on November 21 in Evansville, Ind., hosted by the University of Southern Indiana. The women's championship begins at noon with the men's championship starting at 1 p.m.