Gamecock Freshman Make Program History at NCAA South Regionals - Jacksonville State University Athletics

Friday, November 13

Tallahassee, Fla.

6k | 7:30 AM

Jax State

South Region Championship

Results Results (PDF)

11/13/2026 1:06:00 PM | Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After two remarkable individual performances at the NCAA South Region Championship in Tallahassee, Fla. on Friday morning, Jax State freshmen Shadrack Kipkurgat and Mercy Sergon became the first USTFCCCA All-South Region selections in school history, along with being the school's top individual finishers at the region championship.

"Proud is an understatement," head coach Jeremy Provence said. "We had a great day from a team and individual standpoint. Big congratulations to Shadrack and Mercy on their All-Region honors and finishing in the top-10. They got out exactly where we needed them to be and ran with a lot of determination."

Kicking off the morning was Sergon's 10^th place finish in the women's 6k, running a 19:57.9 time. Following her result, Kipkurgat blitzed his way to a 10^th place finish in the men's 10k, clocking a 29:34.0 to set a new school record in his first collegiate 10k race.

The pair are expected to be selected for the NCAA National Championship meet during the 2026 NCAA Division I Cross Country Selection Show on NCAA.com on Saturday at 4 p.m. The championship meet is set for Nov. 21 in Terre Haute, Ind.

As a unit, Jax State made history as well, earning its highest ever finishes in a regional championship on both teams, as the men's squad placed 9^th of 21 schools, paired with the women's 13^thplace result out of 30 teams.

"The men have been great at executing the race plan the past several weeks," Provence said. "They are incredibly coachable and they know how to get the job done in the last few kilometers of the race to win the individual battles."

The men's squad defeated premier programs such as Georgia Tech, Belmont, Miami and CUSA foe FIU while the women's squad bested programs such as UCF, Kennesaw State, Miami, Belmont and FIU.
"The women haven't put it all together in a 6k, but did enough to finish in the top-15 and beat Kennesaw State who found a way to move ahead of us in the last 2k at the CUSA Championships," Provence said.

In a field of 216 runners in the women's competition, the Gamecocks had four finish in the top-110, including sophomore Viola Jepleting who earned a 57^th place result with a time of 21:11.2. Rounding out the top-five for Jax State was Naum Kibiwott (103^rd), Faith Kurgoi (107^th) and Selina Planken (127^th).

"Naum stepped up and ran in our third spot which was something we needed and was critical to our team's success," Provence said. "I'm also really proud of Selina. She continues to be more aggressive in the middle of the race and is showing improvement."

On the men's side, Jax State had four of its eight runners finish in the top-100, featuring Kipkurgat, Linus Chepkochei (31^st, 30:33.8), Mark Roper (41^st, 30:54.7), Beltran Flores (91^st, 32:22.2) and Pai Wynyard (94^th, 32:26.9).

"Beltran had a great race that we needed for the team," Provence said. "We were a little banged up in our 4-6 spot, but he ran like a veteran in his first regional championship."