Cross Country Heads to South Region Championship - Jacksonville State University Athletics

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – Continuing its postseason for another week, the Jax State Cross Country program approaches its toughest test this year at the NCAA DI South Region Championship on Friday morning at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla.

The women's 6k is set to kick off the morning slate at 7:30 a.m., followed by the men's 10k at 8:30 a.m. Jax State will have 17 total runners in the competition, with eight from the men's squad and nine from the women's group.

Headlining the Gamecocks once again, is the freshman duo of Shadrack Kipkurgat and Mercy Sergon. The duo is coming off impressive performances at the Conference USA Championship two weeks ago that saw Kipkurgat earn an individual championship and Sergon come away with a runner-up finish. Both results are the highest finishes in school history at a conference championship meet.

Additionally, the pairing both earned Freshman of the Meet honors, along with All-CUSA First Team nods as well. Alongside them was four other Gamecocks who earned all-conference honors in Huntsville, including Linus Chepkochei (First Team), Mark Roper (Second Team), Viola Jepleting (Second Team) and Miguel Del Rosario (Third Team).

Kipkurgat has already firmly etched himself in the history books at Jax State, boasting the top 8k time in school history of 23:16.0 that he set on Oct. 16 at the Kennemer Classic. Sergon has been all over the record books for the Gamecocks as well, after setting a new 6k school record at the CUSA Championships with a time of 19:29.4. Friday's outing will be each of their first collegiate 10k's.

The Gamecock men's unit will be seeking help from Chepkochei and Roper as the two have consistently been Jax State's No. 2 and No. 3 finishers throughout the season. Roper currently holds the men's 10k school record that he set at last year's South Region Championship with a time of 31:04.1.

On the women's side, Jax State will need extra scoring assistance from sophomore Viola Jepleting as the group's No. 2 finisher all season long. Jepleting's personal best 6k time sits at 20:37.6 that she set at the conference championship last season.

Following the region championship results, Jax State's fate will be determined on the NCAA Division I Cross Country Selection Show on Nov. 14 at 4 p.m. CT on NCAA.com.

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Players Mentioned

Linus Chepkochei

Miguel Del Rosario

Viola Jepleting

Shadrack Kipkurgat

Mark Roper

Mercy Sergon

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