CHADRON, Neb. -- November 18, 2022 -- The Chadron State College cross country team will face its toughest competition of the year so far, with the 2022 NCAA Division II South Central Cross Country Championships set to be run on Saturday in Denver.

The men's 10-kilometer run will be held first, at 10:30 a.m., while the women are slated to run a six-kilometer race at 11:45 a.m. The race is to be held in Washington Park, just south of downtown.

The South Central region is once again home to the elite teams in NCAA Division II. No. 1-ranked Colorado School of Mines, No. 2 Adams State, No. 7 Western Colorado, No. 12 Colorado Christian, No. 14 UCCS, and No. 25 West Texas A&M are set to compete on the men's side. On the women's, there are No. 1 Adams State, No. 3 Mines, No. 4 UCCS, No. 7 Dallas Baptist, No. 10 Western Colorado, No. 16 CSU-Pueblo, No. 18 Colorado Christian, and No. 24 West Texas A&M.

Winners of the past two regional championships have gone on to win at least one of the two national competitions.

The Chadron State men received an influx of new talent this fall, and posted six of the program's top 10 seasonal-bests at six kilometers at the Gage McSpadden Memorial in Spearfish for its season opener. Three men cracked the top 10 at eight kilometers when the Eagles traveled to Colby, Kansas, for the Trojan Invitational.

The Eagles did not save their best performance for the conference championships in Durango, Colorado, however they did manage to defeat Westminster and Regis at that meet.

True freshmen Topi Alahuhta and Charles Fossey led the Eagles at each of the last two races, which were both 8k. Redshirt freshman Kyle Shirley was second on the squad both times.

The CSC women's team is comprised of seven freshmen and three sophomores.

Three true freshmen finished in the front of the Eagles' pack at the six-kilometer RMAC Championships. They are Lexi Rule, Lydia Peters, and Josie Diffendaffer. All three have been among the top four for CSC at every competition this fall. Sophomore Alissa Wieman is right there in the pack as well.

Both Eagles cadres are looking to improve on last year's performance at the regional. The men's team was 22nd of 26th teams, while the women's was 24th of 25.

The course at Washington Park is near completely flat, despite being at an elevation of 5,280 feet.

The top three teams at each region, in each race, are automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships December 2-3 in Seattle. Ten additional teams nationally are selected at-large by an NCAA committee. Typically, as was the case in 2021, three of the at-large teams are from the South Central region.

In addition, individuals may qualify, if their team doesn't, by being one of the top two runners on a non-qualilfying team or in the top five overall.

Results will be posted at roadrunnersathletics.com.