CSU Cross Country Travels to Queens, NC for NCAA Regionals

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Columbus – The Columbus State University men's and women's cross country programs will travel to compete at the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional in Queens, North Carolina on Saturday. The regional is one of eight Division II regional meets across the country before the national championship meet that will take place in Spokane, Washington on November 19.

The Southeast Regional will be run on the McAlpine Creek Park Championship Cross Country Course, a course that has been the home of 1999 Conference USA Championships and the 2000 Great American Cross Country Festival. The women will run a 6k making two 3,000 meter loops around the course and the men will run a 10k route running one 4,200 meter loop and two 2,900 meter loops around McAlpine Creek Park.

The CSU men's cross country program comes into the meet after losing the Peach Belt Conference title for the first time in five years. The Cougars finished fourth at the conference meet, but they still have some momentum heading to North Carolina. At the PBC Championships, Andy Henderson finished 10th in the field and beat out teammate Ian Edwards for the first time during 2011. Edwards was the highest finishing Cougar in every meet the team ran until then. Edwards has been dealing with a lingering back injury all season but still managed to finish 19th at the PBC Championships.

The Lady Cougars also had their six-year conference championship streak snapped in Aiken at the PBC meet when they finished fifth at the championship. However, twins Moneque and Moneka English stole the show during the 2011 season, coming in as the Lady Cougars top two runners in four of the five meets CSU ran. In fact, Moneque was the highest finishing Lady Cougar at every meet. Reene Usher also ran well from CSU, but could only crack the top two Lady Cougar finishers in the first meet of the season, the Georgia Southwestern Remembrance Run. Usher was able to beat out Moneka English by one-place in Americus, Georgia.

Both the men's and women's programs won the Georgia Southwestern Remembrance Run in the first meet of the year for their only team wins in 2011.