Nov. 10, 2007

Tulsa, Okla. - The University of Tulsa's cross country teams both finished in the top-six at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Peoria, Ill., today. The men's team finished fourth and women's team finished sixth. Both performances were the highest in school history at a regional. Junior male runner John Beattie and junior female runner Alex Becker both qualified for the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. on November 19, by being a top-four individual not on a qualifying team. The top-2 teams qualified for the NCAA Championships.

The men's team finished, just behind #12 Oklahoma State, who finished first, #15 Minnesota, who finished second, and Iowa State, who finished third. All of Tulsa's men's runners finished in the top-41. TU was fourth out of 22 teams with a combined team score of 125. The men were led by junior John Beattie, who finished sixth in a time of 30:11 in the 10K race. Other participants for the men were: sophomore Lewis Timmins in 22nd (30:46), sophomore Kyle Dekker in 26th (30:56), sophomore Eric Harris in 35th (31:14), senior Joel Stansloski in 36th (31:14), and senior Brett Turowski in 41st (31:25). The men's team chances of finishing higher were hurt during the race when top runner junior Edwin Henshaw, who was in third place at the time, was forced from the race because of injury.

The women's team finished sixth out of 25 teams, behind # 6 Minnesota, # 12 Illinois, # 19 Iowa, # 30 Nebraska and Oklahoma State. The top finisher was junior Alex Becker in third place with a time of 20:06 in the 6K race. Other finishers for the women were: junior Marissa Saunders in 35th (21:25), sophomore Lana Kelley in 38th (21:27), freshman Ashlea Gulfillan in 50th (21:38), Laura Englehutt in 60th (21:46), sophomore Tayler Rigsby in 85th (22:11) and freshman Ashley Aitkin in 94th (22:20).

The men's team still has a good chance of receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships because of its outstanding finish at Pre-Nationals, the same course where the championship race will be run. On Sunday night the at-large teams will be posted on NCAASports.com.