The men's and women's cross country teams traveled to the Southeast Regional Cross Country Championships in Louisville, Ky. Saturday with their postseason fates on the line.
The 14th-ranked women's team added to its recent string of strong performances with a second place finish to No. 2 N.C. State. With that finish, the women earned an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships Nov. 20.
"We put forth our best effort of the season, and we were really thrilled with the results," head coach Kevin Jermyn said. "We're in the position I hoped we'd be in going into the last weekend of the year."
Senior Emily McCabe and sophomore Maddie McKeever once again led the Blue Devils, finishing third and fourth overall. But it was freshman Kate Van Buskirk who turned in the performance of the day.
"Kate's improvement from the ACC Championships two weeks ago was the biggest on the team," Jermyn said. "Her performance helped us close the gap on N.C. State significantly over the last two weeks."
Van Buskirk's 18th-place finish was a 12 spot jump from her performance in the ACC Championships. Her improvement helped pull the Blue Devils to within nine points of the Wolfpack.
The women hope to narrow the gap on the top teams even more when they compete at the NCAA Championships.
"Everyone is training to peak this weekend, and it will be the focal point of the whole year," Jermyn said. "We want to see if we can place among the top-10 teams nationally."
The men were not able to match the women's success Saturday. They finished in ninth place, which put them out of contention for an NCAA bid.
"We have no excuses," head coach Norm Ogilvie said. "We just didn't run as well as previous meets."
The men's team will finish its season competing at the IC4A Cross Country Championships next Saturday. The Blue Devils won their first IC4A Championship title in school history last year and will look to repeat.
"We want to close the season on a strong note and try to defend our win," Ogilvie said. "To win it two years in a row would be a great accomplishment."
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