WKU Closes Out Season at NCAA Regionals

Friday, November 15

Charlottesville, Va.

9:30 a.m. CT

Western Kentucky University

NCAA Southeast Regional

11/15/2019 1:31:00 PM | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – WKU Cross Country closed out its season at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships Friday morning at Panorama Farms in Charlottesville, Va.

It was the school's first time participating in Regionals since 2016 and first time sending a full team since 2015, with seven men racing in the 10k and two women competing in the 6k.

The men's squad closed out their first 10k of the season with a 30^th-place finish out of the 35-school pool, beating out UNCW, USC Upstate, Murray State, Northern Kentucky and Presbyterian. The team's top finisher was Emerson Wells, who placed 146^th against the 247-competitor field with a time of 33:09.9. Ethan Snyder [166^th Place – 33:32.6], Jacob Skillman [173^rd Place – 33:41.8], Dedrick Troxell [177^th Place - 33:47.8] and Clint Sherman [183^rd Place – 33:55.3] rounded out the squad's top five.

"I think the men left it all out on the course," said cross country head coach Tim Sykes. "They got out really strong, but in the middle third of the race when it was kind of time to move, we couldn't move as far forward as we wanted to. Truthfully, I think that's just an aspect of them being a young group, they're freshmen and sophomores, and on the men's side that 10k is obviously a longer distance so rhythmically it's inspired them to get stronger and increase their training volume so they can compete and move in the middle third of the race in their next 10k experience. But, even though the men's result wasn't quite what we wanted, it was still an invaluable experience for them to come and see what it takes to compete at this level.

"Although we didn't meet our team goal of placing in the top 25, we did have our spread of our first man to our fifth man at below one minute, which was the objective. So, if we can keep that spread next year and they're able to move up individually in their placement, then we'll be in the team goal placement where we want to be."

WKU Men's Results
30^th – Team – 33:37 avg.
146^th – Emerson Wells – 33:09.9
166^th – Ethan Snyder – 33:32.6
173^rd – Jacob Skillman – 33:41.8
177^th – Dedrick Troxell – 33:47.8
183^rd – Clint Sherman – 33:55.3
233^rd – Jacob Steppe – 35:54.7
234^th – Will Perrone – 35:56.2

On the women's side, both Savannah Heckman and Morgan Kannapel earned PR's in the 6k. Heckman finished with a time of 23:07.5 and Kannapel recorded a mark of 23:59.8, with both runners topping their previous best times by more than a minute.

"On the women's side they competed well," said Sykes. "They executed the race plan as best as possible. They left it all out on the course and when they crossed the line they couldn't have given it any more. But, they still weren't satisfied with the results. So, they're definitely motivated from this experience and the learning experience they took from this will be invaluable moving forward. Overall, both of them came away with the recognition of what it takes to compete at this level. It was a good experience for both of them, although they weren't satisfied, I think this experience will be invaluable."

WKU Women's Results
177^th – Savannah Heckman – 23:07.5 (PR)
219^th – Morgan Kannapel – 23:59.8 (PR)

"Both sides are definitely fired up, both the men and the women," said Sykes. "They're excited about now knowing what it will take to get where we want to go as a team."