2025 NCAA South Central Region Championships – Saturday, Nov. 8 – (W) 11 a.m. – (M) 12:15 a.m. [Live Results] [Championship Central]
Pueblo, Colo. – Walking Stick Golf Course

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Update: On Friday afternoon, the start of Saturday's races moved to 11 a.m. for the women and 12:15 p.m. for the men due to the chance for frost on the course.

QUALIFYING FOR NATIONALS
This Saturday brings the second race of the postseason for Mines cross country. It's the 2025 NCAA Division II South Central Region Championships hosted by CSU Pueblo at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo, Colo. The whole point of the day is to qualify for the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships. All that's needed is a top-three finish as a team. The women will start the day with a 6K dash at 11 a.m. The men's race, a 10K, will go off at 12:15 a.m. Team finishes outside the top three will leave the Orediggers' fate, and others, up to the selection committee.
 
LIVE COVERAGE
Live results for both of Saturday's races will be provided by Rapid Results through the AthleticLive dashboard linked HERE and above. There won't be any live video.
 
WEATHER REPORT
The forecast on Saturday presents the opportunity for perfect racing conditions. A high temperature of 56 degrees may prove chilly for spectators, but perfect for the runners. The women's race will start under clear skies with a temperature bet 40-50 degrees. By the start of the men's race, the temperature will just crack 50 degrees with plenty of sunshine, a light breeze and humidity under 36 percent. Those in attendance will want layers and plenty of sunscreen.
 
COURSE PREVIEW
Walking Stick Golf Course will be the setting for Saturday's races. It's a tract that hasn't seen a regional race in over 15 years, if not more. The race course is a 2K loop which means the women will do three laps and the men will complete five laps. According to the course map online which is also linked above, the runners remain mostly on the fairways but do cross the path meant for golf carts twice during each lap. According to the CSU Pueblo Athletics homepage, Walking Stick Golf Course is, "known for its rolling fairways, wide turns, and Pueblo's characteristic elevation." In regards to elevation, Pueblo, Colo., is right around 4,600 feet above sea level. For comparison, a large majority of south central regional races in the last decade have been run in Denver, Colo., Canyon, Texas, and Lubbock, Texas. Denver's elevation is 5,280 feet, Canyon sits 3,500 feet above sea level, and Lubbock is listed at 3,202 feet of elevation.
 
GUEST LIST
The South Central Region in NCAA Division II is made up of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and the Lone Star Conference. There are 15 RMAC men's and women's teams. The LSC, according to its conference championship finish, has 13 men's teams and 16 women's teams. That means the men's race will potentially feature 28 squads with up to seven runners each for a maximum field of 196. The women's 6K could have as many as 31 teams and 217 runners. While every team in the region is eligible to race at the regional, not all teams enter seven runners. It's always worth mentioning that the South Central Region is also one of the best in the entire nation for cross country. More on that next.
 
IN THE RANKINGS
As stated above, the South Central Region in NCAA Division II is one of the premier cross country regions in the country. That's thanks in large part to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, but the Lone Star is nothing to sneeze at either. Nationally-ranked men's teams in Saturday's race include #2 Adams State, #3 Mines, #6 Colorado Christian, #8 Western Colorado, #12 West Texas A&M, #15 UCCS, and #24 Fort Lewis. Nationally-ranked women's teams entered in Saturday's regional include #1 Mines, #3 UCCS, #4 West Texas A&M, #6 Adams State, #8 Western Colorado, #15 Colorado Mesa, #23 Fort Lewis, and #26 CSU Pueblo. That makes seven ranked men's squads and eight ranked women's squads including four of the top-10 men's teams and  five of the top-10 women's teams all in one race and it's not the national meet.
 
OREDIGGER ENTRIES
For the NCAA postseason, teams can submit up to 10 entries, but only seven will run in the actual race. Official entries were made public on the live results page. However, teams won't declare their top seven runners until Friday afternoon's check-in. Margaux Basart, Gabi Boeckman, Angela Friedman, Lexi Herr, Emily LaMena, Callen Nash, Katie Price, Grace Strongman, and Sierra Wall make nine entries for the Oredigger women. Daniel Appleford, Max Bonenberger, Ethan Grolnic, Dawson Gunn, Paul Knight, Jacob Schwarting, Braden Struhs, Jeremiah Vaille, and Charlie Welch give Mines' men 10 entries. Again, only seven from each of those lists will run on Saturday.
 
CROSS COUNTRY SCORING
Standard college cross country scoring will be used on Saturday. That means each team's top-five runners will collect the number of points equal to their individual placement while the sixth and seventh runners serve as displacers. They don't score, but can change the scoring of another team's runner. For example, if the Orediggers finished 10-17, the top five would produce a team score of 60 points while the sixth and seventh runners would push runners behind them down two spots. A perfect team score in college cross country is 15 points.
 
HOW TO QUALIFY
As mentioned in the first section, tickets to the national championships are on the line on Saturday. The top three teams on each side will receive an automatic bid to the big meet in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 22. There will also be 10 at-large teams selected across all eight regions in NCAA Division II based on their season performances against other teams. There's a formula and everything apparently, but the author doesn't understand it well enough to explain the formula. Additionally, the region gets two individual qualifiers from both the men's and women's side. They are the top-two individual finishers from non-qualifying teams. There are eight additional individual selections based on the at-large formula. Also notable is that any individual from a non-qualifying team that finishes top-five overall also gets into the national meet.
 
MORE HARDWARE
As with the RMAC Championships raced two weeks ago, additional hardware is on the line this weekend, but not nearly as much. Individual first-place finishers will be named NCAA South Central Regional Runner of the Year. The top-25 individuals in each race will earn USTFCCCA All-Region status. There is also region coach of the year for the men and the women. It is typically the coach of the winning team, but it's voted on after the races. Obviously, on the team side, the men's team and women's team with the lowest point total based on standard, collegiate cross country scoring will be crowned regional champions.
 
SIX STRAIGHT
Colorado School of Mines men's cross country has won six straight NCAA South Central Region titles and seven of the last nine. There was no regional race in 2020. During that same span, two different Orediggers have combined to win three individual titles. Grant Colligan, who is now an assistant coach for Mines, won NCAA South Central Region Runner of the Year in 2018 to fuel Mines' team title. Dillon Powell won back-to-back region crowns in 2021 and 2022. His 2021 first-place finish featured a 26.8-second margin of victory. It marked the largest margin of victory in a south central men's race since at least 2012. Last season, at Washington Park in Denver, the Oredigger men produced six all-region runners on the way to a team score of 40 which staved off runner-up Adams State by 19 points. Obviously, Saturday's race presents Mines the opportunity to win a seventh straight region title. The men of Mines have not finished lower than second in the region for a decade straight.
 
ON THE PRECIPICE
Just two weeks ago, Mines' women broke through and won their first-ever RMAC cross country crown after years of team silver. This week, the Oredigger women remain on the precipice of more program history as they chase their first-ever regional championship. Despite the lack of team gold, the women of Mines have proven to be very automatic at the regional race. They have finished top-three (automatic qualifier for nationals) in the region nine of the last 10 races dating back to 2014. That run includes seven consecutive automatic bids from 2017 to present day. The only time in the last decade when Mines' women did not finish top-three was 2016 when they earned an at-large bid. The Oredigger women earned team silver in 2014, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Last season's race saw four runners for Mines finish with all-region status. That fueled a team score of 75 which was 45 points ahead of third-place UCCS and 38 points behind Adams State. As noted in the previous section, there was not a regional race in 2020.
 
RMAC BREAKTHROUGH
The Colorado School of Mines women's cross country team made history two weeks ago at the 2025 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships as they won the program's first RMAC title. Grace Strongman anchored the historic effort with individual gold and RMAC Runner of the Year distinction. All five of the Oredigger scorers finished top-10 and fueled a team score of 28 which was 40 points better than runner-up UCCS. Strongman also shattered the course record and became just the second Oredigger women to ever win RMAC Runner of the Year after Zoe Baker broke through in 2020. Mines' title for the women made them just the third program since 1981 to win a RMAC crown. On the men's side, Paul Knight was the individual champion and RMAC Runner of the Year as Mines finished runner-up to Adams State by just nine points. Additionally, Oredigger skipper Chris Siemers was voted RMAC Women's Coach of the Year and Cody Wyman was RMAC Freshman of the Year in the men's race.
 
NATIONAL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK – AGAIN
Grace Strongman's gold-medal finish at the conference meet netted her National Athlete of the Week honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) for the second time this season. Strong traversed the 6K course at Monument Valley Park North in a time of 20:06.7. That pace shattered the previous course record held by Fort Lewis' Hannah Hartwell by more than a minute. Strongman won the race by nearly 10 seconds. She became just the second Oredigger woman to win the RMAC race. Prior to this season, Strongman had never won a college race in track & field or cross country.
 
HISTORIC RANKINGS
Leading into the RMAC Championships, Mines bolstered its illustrious history twice over. First, the Oredigger women rose to #1 in the nation for the first time in program history. The following week, the men took over #1 in their poll as well. It marked the first time ever the Mines men and women have been simultaneously ranked #1. After the conference race, the Oredigger men were dropped to #3 in the nation, but the women remain #1.
 
THE BOSS
Colorado School of Mines Cross Country Head Coach Chris Siemers is in his 14th season at the helm for the Oredigger men and women. Headlining his resume are four NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships which Mines' men brought home in 2015, 2019, 2022, and 2024. Siemers' men's teams have had 38 individuals earn 69 cross country all-America honors. That has led to eight RMAC crowns (2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) and seven NCAA South Central Regional titles (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). No men's team coached by Siemers has ever finished lower than fifth in the nation. On the women's side, 10 individuals have posted 16 Cross Country All-America finishes during Siemers' tenure. As a team, the women earned their first national podium finish in 2019 by finishing third at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships. They added a second podium in 2021 by taking fourth place. The 2022 and 2023 seasons saw the women match their best finish in program history at the national race, taking third and making it four straight podiums. Mines' women, after numerous runner-up finishes, clinched their first-ever RMAC title in 2025.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
What's next depends on Saturday's results. If the men and women both finish top-three as a team, they are guaranteed a trip to the 2025 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships in Kenosha, Wis., on Saturday, Nov. 22. However, a finish outside the top-three leaves Mines' fate in the hands of the selection committee which will officially announce the national field early next week.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines cross country on "X" (formerly Twitter) and Instagram at @csmtrack. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, "X" and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.