The Cleveland State Cross Country team will be sending their top two runners, Madison Guider and Luis Perez, to the NJCAA Championships in Fort Dodge, Iowa on Saturday.
Both the men's and women's courses will run on a flat to rolling terrain.
This is the same site and course as the Iowa High School State Cross Country Meet. The women will run a one-loop 8k course and the men will run a two-loop 8k course. With 300-plus junior college runners attending, this is most certainly the biggest meet of the year for Cleveland State. It's also the first postseason meet for the inaugural program.
"This is very exciting to be able to go and participate in this meet. If my runners race what I think they are capable of racing, we'll have two top 100 places. There's going to be 300+ at this meet, so to potentially have two top 100 finishes in our inaugural season would be amazing," said Head Coach David Kyle.
"It's an honor to be able to attend this meet. It's exciting knowing that Luis and I will be the first runners from Cleveland State to race at this meet. Also, for me, this will be the biggest meet I will have ever raced in and I'm excited to see what I can do in this race," said Madison Guider. Luis Perez added, "It's going to be an amazing experience. I can't wait to see the different levels of competition so that I can figure out what to improve on. This meet is going to help us grow and improve for next season."
Madison and Luis each led their respective teams in every single meet of the regular season. Both runners secured 1st overall place finishes at the Central Georgia Tech Invitational, where the men's team took the overall title; a first for Cleveland State. But now, they will get the chance to represent their team and their college in Cleveland State's first ever appearance at the championship race.