(Editor’s note: Montana State athletics release)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Committee announced Saturday the team and individual qualifiers for the 2018 NCAA Division I men’s and women’s cross country championships. Montana State will be represented in the men’s 10-kilometer championship race on Saturday, Nov. 17, as Ty Mogan was selected to compete on the national stage.
“It is so rewarding and exciting to see Ty’s hard work pay off over the last four years and have it result in his qualification to the NCAA Championships,” Montana State cross country head coach Lyle Weese said.
Mogan will travel to Madison, Wis., to race on the University of Wisconsin’s Zimmer Championship Course. The men’s championship is set for a 10:45 a.m. MT start.
Thirty-eight individuals were selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. All individual qualifiers finished in the top 25 in their regions.
Mogan placed 25th at the Mountain Region Cross Country Championships on Friday at East Bay Golf Course in Provo, Utah. His finishing time of 29:57.4 was his first ever under 30 minutes in a 10k race. His 25th-place showing was 10 spots higher than his previous appearance at the meet in 2016.
Mogan was the lone qualifier from the Mountain Region that advanced individually and not on a team that will move on to the NCAA Championships. The region MSU competed in advanced an NCAA-high seven teams to Madison on Saturday.
“Ty was the only individual qualifier from the best region in the NCAA,” Weese said. “While Ty is happy, I know he is determined to lead a team to the NCAA Championships next year.”
The Laurel, Mont., native was the Bobcats’ top finisher in all five meets he competed in this season.
He opened the 2018 cross country season by taking first at the MSU Cross Country Classic on Sept. 15 and was named the Big Sky Male Cross Country Athlete of Week for his performance. He followed the effort with a runner-up finish at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota on Sept. 29. Mogan ran at the Zimmer Championship Course and finished 32nd in the Pre-National Invitational on Oct. 13 and nearly earned all-Big Sky honors when he took 12th at the Big Sky Championship on Oct. 27.
Mogan, a redshirt junior, had all four of his 8k races come in under 25 minutes this season. That includes a 24:19.9 mark at the Pre-Nationals meet that was a personal best until he topped it with a time of 24:15.0 at the conference championship in Sacramento.
The last Bobcat to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championship meet was Jake Turner in 2014 who placed 101st with a time of 31:32.0.
The Bobcat men’s team placed 11th in the Mountain Region standings with 257 points on Friday to close out its season, its lowest total since its 2013 appearance.
