CU men's cross country to compete in Nationals for first time

There aren’t many Lions teams competing on the national level, but the cross country teams will be competing with the nation’s best today. The men’s cross country team, along with women’s cross country runner freshman Waverly Neer, will represent the Lions at the NCAA National Championships at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind.

The men are ranked 23rd nationally and received an at-large bid last weekend after placing five runners in the top 23 in the NCAA Northeast Regionals, even though the team finished third overall after Syracuse and Iona. This will be the first appearance at the NCAA Championships for the men’s squad. Previously, Columbia has sent six women’s teams to the National Championship race but never a men’s team.

Representing the Lions will be seniors Kyle Merber and Justin Heck; juniors Mike Murphy, Leighton Spencer, and Ben Veilleux; and sophomores Nico Composto and Jake Sienko. Junior Paul Snyder will travel with the team and serve as an alternate runner. Murphy led the Light Blue at the Northeast Regionals, finishing 14th with a time of 31:40.9 in the 10k.

Neer will return to her home state of Indiana to compete in the race as the sole representative of the Lions’ women’s cross country team. The squad finished in fourth place overall but was unable to secure an at-large bid.

After being sidelined with a back injury earlier this season, Neer has had strong performances in each of her three last outings, including a remarkable fifth place finish at the Northeast Regionals race with a time of 40:44.6 in the 6k. She was named to the 2011 All-Ivy first team and was the only freshman in the conference to earn this distinction. Neer is the 22nd Columbia female from either the cross country or track and field teams in school history to see action in the NCAA Championships.

The men’s race will begin close to 12:08 p.m., followed by the women’s race at around 1:58 p.m. The top 40 finishers from today’s race will earn the distinction of receiving All-American status. The race will be broadcast live on NCAA.com from 12 to 1:30 p.m.