Cross Country Seeks Strong Finish at 2022 NCAA Championships

			2022 NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS Saturday, November 19 • Stillwater, Okla. Women's 6K: 9:20 a.m. CT • Men's 10K: 10:10 a.m. CT
Meet Hub • Watch • Live Results

STILLWATER, Okla. – Ole Miss cross country will look to finish strong on the national stage, as the Rebel men's team and women's senior Ryann Helmers will conclude their seasons at the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships at Oklahoma State's Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course on Saturday morning. Both races will air live and commercial-free on ESPNU beginning at 9 a.m. CT, with the women's championships 6K scheduled for 9:20 a.m. CT and the men's championship 10K race for 10:10 a.m. CT.

At last week's NCAA South Regional, the Ole Miss men snagged an automatic qualifier berth to the national meet, breaking the formchart on a wet and muddy day in Huntsville to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the ninth consecutive season. On the women's side, Helmers recorded the fourth-best individual regional finish in Rebel women's history in ninth place, which ended up making her just the second Ole Miss women's runner to earn an individual berth to nationals.

Women's Championship 6K Preview • 9:20 a.m. CT

Senior Ryann Helmers is just the second Rebel woman to ever earn an individual spot at the national meet, joining Katie Breathitt in 2012, who finished 62nd overall. In the combined history of both the Ole Miss men's and women's programs, Helmers is the sixth Rebel to individually qualify for nationals, joining Breathitt and six Rebel men's berths: Pablo Sierra (1992, 45th), Bernard Kuria (1997, 67th), Barnabas Kirui (2006, 71st; 2009, 4th; 2010) and Martin Kirui (2011, 131st).

Helmers – a native of Sanderson, Texas – has been the top runner for the Ole Miss women all season long, notching an average finishing spot of 10.2 across her five races this fall. She began the season with an individual win at home in the SEC Preview on Sept. 16 (20:29.2), which earned her SEC Co-Women's Runner of the Week honors. From there, Helmers was the top finisher for Ole Miss at the stacked Cowboy Jamboree on Sept. 24 (20:55.3) in 25th place, the eighth-place finisher at Virginia's Panorama Farms XC23 Invite 5K on Oct. 15 (16:53.5) and a Second-Team All-SEC honoree as an eighth place finisher for the Rebel women at the SEC Championships on Oct. 28.

She has been especially fast as of late as well, with a huge 6K best of 19:37.2 at SECs to lead Ole Miss to their seventh straight top-three conference finish, and a second consecutive sub-20 6K time of 19:57.9 at the NCAA South Regional last Friday for her second career All-Region nod in ninth place (the fourth-best regional finish ever by a Rebel woman).

Helmers' SEC time is the fastest 6K by a Rebel woman in available records, and she is the only known Ole Miss woman to clock multiple sub-20 times. Other known sub-20 times in Ole Miss women's history are Loral Winn's SEC time of 19:57.87 from this year, All-American Sintayehu Vissa's 19:53.20 from the 2021 NCAA Championships, and Clio Ozanne-Jaques' 19:48.20 from the 2018 SEC Championships.

Men's Championship 10K Preview • 10:10 a.m. CT

No. 29 Ole Miss Men • NCAA Roster
Shane Bracken
Aiden Britt
Cole Bullock
Anthony Camerieri
Dereck Elkins
Dalton Hengst
Chris Maxon
Ben Savino

NCAA Team Finish History
2014 – 29th
2015 – 30th
2016 – 4th
2017 – 18th
2018 – 17th
2019 – 22nd
2020 – 12th
2021 – 15th

The Ole Miss men dug deep and found just enough steam over the final two kilometers to edge out the reigning SEC champions Alabama last week at the NCAA South Regional, earning an automatic qualifying berth in the process.

Two weeks earlier, the Rebel men were locked in a heated battle with those Crimson Tide – as well as Tennessee and Arkansas – in the closest team race in the SEC since 1994 and the closest among four teams in conference history. Last week, though, the Rebel men received two crucial races from their fourth and fifth scorers to squeeze past the 16th-ranked Tide, finishing second by a 69-73 advantage over Alabama for one of the two automatic bids to NCAAs. No. 20 Tennessee – the SEC runners-up – ran away with the team title and an AQ ticket to nationals with 39 points.

This is the ninth consecutive year the Rebel men have qualified for the NCAA Championships after having never done so prior to 2014.

Senior Anthony Camerieri led the way for the Rebels as he had all season long, posting the best individual finish for the Ole Miss men at the regional meet since 2018. Camerieri was fifth overall for his first career All-Region honor, clocking in at a monstrous 47-second 10K best of 29:28.90 after sticking with an impressive lead pack of runners for nearly all 10 kilometers.

All-American senior Cole Bullock earned his second All-Region nod after running a 10K PR of 29:51.30 to finish 11th overall. Fellow senior Chris Maxon was All-Region as well in 16th place, running 30:03.70 in his first cross country 10K of his career.

It was those fourth and fifth place finishes, though, that ended up being the difference for Ole Miss. Senior Dereck Elkins was nine scoring spots ahead of his fourth-slot counterpart on Alabama's roster, earning All-Region honors for the second straight year in 18th place at 30:11.80. Fellow senior Shane Bracken followed that up with a one-point edge over his No. 5 mirror image for the Crimson Tide, finishing 32nd overall at a 7-second 10K best of 30:42.90.

That 10-point swing ended up pushing Ole Miss ahead of Alabama by its eventual four-point advantage, thus punching the Rebels' ticket to Stillwater for the national meet.

For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.

RebelsCalendar

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Shane Bracken

Aiden Britt

Cole Bullock

Anthony Camerieri

Dereck Elkins

Ryann Helmers

Dalton Hengst

Chris Maxon

Ben Savino

Loral Winn

The University of Mississippi Athletics