Riley Coates Qualifies to NCAA Championships
11/15/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Air Force senior Riley Coates earned a spot in the 2014 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, the national selection committee announced this afternoon (Nov. 15). Coates earned an individual berth to the national meet following a strong performance at the Mountain Regional Championships.
The NCAA Championships will take place next Saturday (Nov. 22) at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course at Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind.
Coates, an all-region honoree, earned a spot in the national championships after placing 19th at the regional meet with a career-best 10K time of 30:20.93. Finishing third amongst runners not on an advancing team, the senior captain earned one of the region's four individual selections to the NCAAs.
It will be the second time this season that Coates has competed on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course, as he ran an 8K race at the Pre-Nationals Invitational in mid-October. Coates, who finished 51st out of 310 runners at this year's Pre-Nats, has also traversed the 10K course once, as a member of the Air Force team that competed at last year's national meet.
In all, 31 teams were selected to participate in both the men's and women's championship races. The top two teams from each of the nine regional meets earned automatic berths to Terre Haute, while 13 additional teams were chosen by at-large selections. The top four runners from each region that were not on an advancing team also qualified to the national meet.
Players Mentioned
