The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Headed to national championships
The top-ranked Western State College women’s cross country team won its first regional championships since 2006 and Lauren Kleppin remained undefeated this season at the NCAA Division II Central Region Championships Saturday, November 5 at Denver’s Washington Park. Gabe Proctor won the men’s race and the Mountaineer men finished second.
All five scoring runners for both the men’s and women’s teams earned U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Region honors for finishing in the top 25 of the overall results. The USTFCCCA expanded the field of all-region honorees from 15 to 25 during the off-season.
Kleppin became the first Mountaineer woman since 2006 to win the regional title, and the eighth overall since 1992, as she won by a 29-second margin against Adams State’s Alicia Nelson. Kleppin has won her five races this season by a combined 1 minute, 18.53 seconds, and led three other Mountaineers who finished in the top 10 overall.
Western State won by a 37-47 margin against Adams State, and was the only team to finish with all five scoring runners in the top 15. Sarah Lyle (fourth), Sophie McNeeley (eighth), Kristen Meadors (ninth) and Julianne Payton (15th) combined for the best Mountaineer team score at the regional championships since 2000.
Proctor won the men’s race with 32:10 on the 10-kilometer course and by a two-second margin over Adams State’s Tabor Stevens. It was Proctor’s first victory of the season and the third for a Mountaineer this season after Tyler Pennel’s win at the RMAC championships and Trevor Blackman’s win at the Mountaineer Open. Pennel finished in third, six seconds behind Proctor.
David Goodman finished in No. 15, with Trevor Blackman in No. 18 and Adam Sinda in No. 24 as the Mountaineers finished with 61 points behind regional team champion Adams State.
The sweep of the individual titles by Kleppin and Proctor was the first for Western State since 2006 and third overall.
The team performances will send the Mountaineers to the NCAA Division II National Championships on November 19. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference will host the championships at the Plantes Ferry Athletic Complex in Spokane, Wash. Both Western State teams have advanced to the national championships in every season since moving to Division II in the 1992 season.
