The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebel Men No. 9, Women No. 23 in Week Seven USTFCCCA National Rankings
11/18/2019 | Cross Country
NCAA Cross Country Championships Set for This Saturday, Nov. 23, in Terre Haute, Indiana
NEW ORLEANS – Ole Miss men's and women's cross country will enter the NCAA Championships ranked within the top-30 nationally, with the Rebel men coming in at No. 9 and the women No. 23 in the Week Seven USTFCCCA National Rankings released on Monday morning.
This week marks the 24th time in program history that both Rebel squads have been ranked at the same time. Ole Miss is one of just seven programs in the nation to have qualified both its men's and women's teams for the national meet in each of the last four seasons, standing alongside Arkansas, BYU, Colorado, NC State, Oregon and Stanford.
Ole Miss has now been ranked in 33 consecutive men's polls, as well as 39 of the last 44 dating back to 2014. Additionally, the Rebel men have been at least receiving votes in 42 of the last 44 occurrences. The No. 9 ranking sits as the second-best in school history after ranking No. 8 in the Week Four poll back in October.
The SEC Champion Rebel men hung together in a tight pack throughout the men's 10K race at the NCAA South Regional last Friday, clocking a scoring spread of 30.8 seconds as Ole Miss charged over the final 5K for its fourth regional title in the last six years. At the halfway mark, the Rebels were sitting in fourth place in the team standings, but all five scorers were sitting in a tight bunch from 22nd to 29th place. From there, the Rebels made a charge, jumping to third at the 6K mark and eventually jumping ahead to take the lead for good at the 8K split. Ole Miss held on over the final two kilometers for a 14-point win over No. 15 Middle Tennessee, 69-83.
The top three finishers for Ole Miss – sophomore Cade Bethmann (eighth, 30:33.0), senior Farah Abdulkarim (ninth, 30:33.1) and junior Waleed Suliman (10th, 30:33.2) all crossed the line at virtually the same time, separated by just two tenths of a second. All three earned All-Region honors, as did other Rebel scorers Michael Coccia (19th, 30:57.7) and Mario Garcia Romo (23rd, 31:03.8). The five All-Region runners stand as the second-most in Ole Miss men's history behind the six honorees in 2018.
This is the second-straight week the Rebel women have appeared in the national poll after falling from the top-30 rankings in Week Five. Ole Miss jumped up four spots to its current slot at No. 23.
Ole Miss used a similar strategy to the men in the women's 6K at the NCAA South Regional, sitting in fifth in a pack from 23rd to 45th at the first split through 2.2 kilometers before making a big push to second place at the halfway mark. The Rebels would hold onto that spot with 100 points behind No. 12 Florida State's 42 points – the lowest total of either gender at the South Region meet since 2013. The runner-up finished was good for an automatic qualifier slot to the NCAA Championships, the fourth straight national berth for the Rebel women.
Four Rebels earned All-Region honors, led by junior Anna Elkin in 10th place at 20:34.1. Fellow junior Maddie King earned her second career All-Region honor in 20th place at 20:42.4, as did sophomore Lisa Vogelgesang in 23rd place at 20:42.8. Junior Victoria Simmons, the top Rebel finisher at the SEC Championships two weeks ago, earned her first career All-Region honor in 25th place at 20:46.3.
The 2019 NCAA Cross Country Championships will be run at Indiana State's LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Indiana. The women's championship 6K race begins at 10:15 a.m. CT while the men's championship 10K race will run at 11:15 a.m. CT.
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
This week marks the 24th time in program history that both Rebel squads have been ranked at the same time. Ole Miss is one of just seven programs in the nation to have qualified both its men's and women's teams for the national meet in each of the last four seasons, standing alongside Arkansas, BYU, Colorado, NC State, Oregon and Stanford.
Ole Miss has now been ranked in 33 consecutive men's polls, as well as 39 of the last 44 dating back to 2014. Additionally, the Rebel men have been at least receiving votes in 42 of the last 44 occurrences. The No. 9 ranking sits as the second-best in school history after ranking No. 8 in the Week Four poll back in October.
The SEC Champion Rebel men hung together in a tight pack throughout the men's 10K race at the NCAA South Regional last Friday, clocking a scoring spread of 30.8 seconds as Ole Miss charged over the final 5K for its fourth regional title in the last six years. At the halfway mark, the Rebels were sitting in fourth place in the team standings, but all five scorers were sitting in a tight bunch from 22nd to 29th place. From there, the Rebels made a charge, jumping to third at the 6K mark and eventually jumping ahead to take the lead for good at the 8K split. Ole Miss held on over the final two kilometers for a 14-point win over No. 15 Middle Tennessee, 69-83.
The top three finishers for Ole Miss – sophomore Cade Bethmann (eighth, 30:33.0), senior Farah Abdulkarim (ninth, 30:33.1) and junior Waleed Suliman (10th, 30:33.2) all crossed the line at virtually the same time, separated by just two tenths of a second. All three earned All-Region honors, as did other Rebel scorers Michael Coccia (19th, 30:57.7) and Mario Garcia Romo (23rd, 31:03.8). The five All-Region runners stand as the second-most in Ole Miss men's history behind the six honorees in 2018.
This is the second-straight week the Rebel women have appeared in the national poll after falling from the top-30 rankings in Week Five. Ole Miss jumped up four spots to its current slot at No. 23.
Ole Miss used a similar strategy to the men in the women's 6K at the NCAA South Regional, sitting in fifth in a pack from 23rd to 45th at the first split through 2.2 kilometers before making a big push to second place at the halfway mark. The Rebels would hold onto that spot with 100 points behind No. 12 Florida State's 42 points – the lowest total of either gender at the South Region meet since 2013. The runner-up finished was good for an automatic qualifier slot to the NCAA Championships, the fourth straight national berth for the Rebel women.
Four Rebels earned All-Region honors, led by junior Anna Elkin in 10th place at 20:34.1. Fellow junior Maddie King earned her second career All-Region honor in 20th place at 20:42.4, as did sophomore Lisa Vogelgesang in 23rd place at 20:42.8. Junior Victoria Simmons, the top Rebel finisher at the SEC Championships two weeks ago, earned her first career All-Region honor in 25th place at 20:46.3.
The 2019 NCAA Cross Country Championships will be run at Indiana State's LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Indiana. The women's championship 6K race begins at 10:15 a.m. CT while the men's championship 10K race will run at 11:15 a.m. CT.
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
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