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The University of Utah Athletics
#20 Utah Cross Country Earns Bid to NCAA Championships
11/14/2015 12:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 14, 2015
SALT LAKE CITY -- The 20th-ranked Utah cross country team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships on Saturday and will make their first team appearance in school history at next weekend's NCAA meet in Louisville, Ky.
The Utes are coming off a third-place finish at the Mountain Region Championships led by a fourth-place finish from Hannah McInturff. Three Utes earned all-region honors: McInturff, Susannah Hurst Spencer (20th) and Sarah Feeny (21st).
"I can't be prouder of a group of girls," Utah head coach Kyle Kepler said. "They did it. This is all on them and they are the ones who believed that we could get it done this year. All of the effort and all the accolades go to them."
The Utes can race seven runners at the NCAA Championships with the top five racers scoring points for the team.
McInturff has finished in the top 10 of every race she has competed in this year. She was fifth at NCAA Pre-Nationals and 10th at the Pac-12 Championships to earn second-team All-Pac-12 honors. Feeny was ninth at Pre-Nationals and seventh at the Notre Dame Cross Country Invite. Hurst-Spencer is coming off a redshirt season and gave birth to a daughter in January. Other strong runners include junior Jessica Sams and senior Andrea Chavez.
While this is Utah's first team appearance, the Utes have had nine racers appear at the NCAA meet in their history. Most recently, Rebekah Winterton qualified in 2013 and Amanda Mergaert was a three-time qualifier from 2010-12. Utah has three NCAA All-Americans in its history: Mergaert (2012), Cesla Boman (1987) and Jill Molen (1982).
The Utes won the 1981 AIAW Division II national championship before moving to NCAA Division I in 1982.
The 2015 NCAA Championships are hosted by Louisville at Tom Sawyer State Park on Saturday, Nov. 21.
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