Indy Standard

Butler Joins Nation’s Best at 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships

The Bulldogs are in Stillwater Saturday for the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships. Hosted by Oklahoma State University on the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course, the meet brings together the nation's top 31 teams and individuals for a run at an NCAA title.

THE DETAILS: The women's 6k race will begin at 9:20 a.m. (Central), followed by the men's 10k at 10:10 a.m. (Central).

FOLLOW ALONG: Fans can watch the action live on ESPNU and the ESPN app beginning at 10 a.m. (Eastern). Live results are also available with a link posted on ButlerSports.com.

THE BUTLER MEN: For the Butler men, this is the third consecutive NCAA at-large berth for the program. Butler's men placed 13th at the spring 2021 NCAA Championships, pushed from the fall of 2020 to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bulldogs finished 28th one year ago.

The Bulldogs are ranked No. 30 in this week's national poll leading into the championships.

Butler's men are led by Barry Keane, who won the Great Lakes Regional Nov. 11 after capturing the BIG EAST title Oct. 29.

For the second year in a row, Butler men went 1-2 at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional as Keane was followed across the line by teammate Jesse Hamlin. Keane covered the 10k course in a time of 29:38.1.

The Bulldogs finished fourth in the region behind three nationally-ranked teams: No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 13 Notre Dame, and No. 28 Michigan. Butler was just three points behind Michigan for third.

Keane and Hamlin will be joined in the NCAA field by Ryan Adkins, Evan Byrne, Matthew Forrester, Jack McMahon, Will Minnette, Edouard Morin-Luzuy, and Nick Doud. McMahon, Morin-Luzuy and Minnette were Butler's three other scorers at the Regional in Terre Haute.

BULLDOG WOMAN: Mia Beckham is part of the NCAA field, earning one of the individual spots. She garnered All-Region honors with a 17th-place finish Friday in Terre Haute, completing the 6k course in a time of 20:19.8. That followed up her All-BIG EAST performance from two weeks ago when she finished eighth at the conference championships.

PREVIOUSLY IN STILLWATER: Butler's men took a third-place finish Oct. 15 behind Top-5 performances by Keane and Hamlin at the Weis-Crockett Invitational in Stillwater, Okla. The meet drew an elite national field, serving as the NCAA Pre-Nationals event as the course will also host the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Beckham led the Butler women with a 34th-place finish.

 

ONE YEAR AGO: Four members of Butler's 2022 men's line-up bring experience from last season's NCAA Championships, which was contested at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla.

Butler's Simon Bedard followed up his BIG EAST title and regional crown with a top-60 finish on the national stage, as the top Bulldog crossed the line in a time of 29:45.7 to finish 60th. Keane (30:09.6) was as high as 56th late in the race but was slowed by a cramp in the final 1K of the 10K race, ultimately finishing 100th. The top overall individual, Connor Mantz of Brigham Young, led the field of 253 elite competitors with a time of 28:33.1.

 

Pierre-Louis Detourbe was Butler's third finisher, coming in 185th (31:02.3). Minnette (196th; 31:07.4) and Clark Otte (218th; 31:34.6) also scored the Bulldogs. McMahon crossed the finish line in 31:56.9, finishing 232nd, while Byrne ran a time of 32:14.8 to finish 237th.

On the women's side, Beckham was the team's third scorer a season ago when the Butler women earned a spot in the 2021 NCAA Championships field. She finished 187th.

Original source can be found here.