BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Competing against the top teams in the region, WKU cross country will travel to Charlottesville, Virginia, to take part in the 2015 NCAA Cross Country Southeast Regional Championships on Friday.
The championships will begin at Panorama Farms with the women's 6,000-meter race at 11 a.m. CT, followed by the men's 10K event at noon CT. Four teams from the women's competition are ranked in the USTFCCCA national rankings, including two in the Top 10 in Virginia (6) and NC State (8), while the men's race boasts five squads in the national polls.
The Lady Toppers are fresh off a third-place finish at the Conference USA Cross Country Championships, where WKU beat three teams ranked in their respective USTFCCCA Regional Rankings. Lindsey Hinken, Katie Lever and Taylor Carlin all garnered all-conference honors, which were the most in a single season since 2011.
Hinken has paced WKU in the last two events with two Top 20 times, including a fourth-place finish at the conference championship to be named the Outstanding Senior of the Meet. Lever joined Hinken in the Top 10 at the C-USA Championship as she placed ninth, while Carlin finished 14th to add to the impressive showing by the Lady Toppers.
The men's cross country team will be represented at regionals by the trio of Endalow Takele, Aaron Stevens and Julien Cuyeu. Takele was the top men's runner for WKU at the conference championship, drawing All-C-USA second team honors with a career-best time of 25:19.6 to finish 13th. Stevens has been steady for the Hilltoppers in 2015, placing in the Top 50 in all but one meet and earning two Top 20 times.
Live results for the NCAA Cross Country Southeast Regional Championships will be posted HERE.
