JOPLIN, Mo. — The Augustana women's cross country team captured the 2019 NCAA Central Region Cross Country Championship while the men placed third Saturday morning in Joplin, Missouri. The women's team took home the regional title for the first time since 2012. With the placings, both teams qualified for the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, California, on Nov. 23. 

The women's team had six runners finish in the top-15 with a final score of 41 while the men had three runners finish in the top-15 with a final score of 76. The women beat out conference foe UMary by nine points to take home the title. 

Women's race
The women's 41 points are the second-lowest total in program history after compiling 64 points in last year's runners-up performance. After losing four of its top-8 from last year the women bounced back in a big way.

Nicolette Schmidt improved off her 18th place finish a year ago with a third-place finish this year to lead the Vikings. Schmidt finished with a time of 21:25.33. Rebekah Rairdon placed seventh with a time of 21:39.24 while her sister Rachel Rairdon finished right behind her in eighth with a time of 21:39.72. 

Rounding out the top-10 for Augustana was Claire Boersma who improved 22 spots from her 2018 finish of 32nd to finish in 10th place this year with a time of 21:42.08. Cait Savey placed 13th with a time of 21:45.15 and Patty Jo English placed 15th with a time of 21:48.76. Completing the scoring for the Vikings was Haylee Waterfall, the sophomore finished with a time of 22:16.22 for 27th place. 

With the first-place finish, the Viking women have qualified for their 13th national meet in the last 14 years. 

Men's race
The men have now qualified for the NCAA Championships for the 11th-straight year after placing in the top three today. The men's 76 points were 24 points behind first-place Missouri Southern and 12 points behind Northwest Missouri. 

Aaron Runge led the way for the Vikings placing third with a time of 30:13.30. Runge is coming off placing first at the NSIC Championships. Jesus Urtusuastegui and Austin Miller round out the top-15 for the Vikings. Urtusastegui placed 12th with a time of 30:53.9 while Miller ran a time of 31:11.60 and finished in 14th place.

Nathan Schroeder had a strong time of 31:28.9 that placed him 21st while Skylar DeJong placed 26th with a time of 31:37.7. Henry Klitzke and Matt Steiger round out the scoring for Augie as Klitzke placed 30th with a time of 31:46.10. Steiger finished 55th after running a time of 32:24.4. 

Quotable
"We are extremely pleased with today's results," Cross Country and Track & Field head coach Tracy Hellman said. "Both teams accomplished our goals of qualifying for the national championships. The women had an outstanding day and performed at a high level. Our women were extremely motivated, as they felt they didn't have a very good effort at the NSIC Championships, and were determined to make it right. Today was that validation. Our spread from 1-5 was 20 seconds, which is really impressive. If we can do that at nationals, good things will follow. 

"On the men's side, the region is very deep and the top-three teams are quality teams. We didn't quite have our best day, but it was still a strong effort and punched our men's ticket for the 11th-consecutive year. I thought Aaron Runge had a great day and it will be exciting to see what he can do in two weeks. Both teams raced well, but we are hungry for more at the NCAA Championships."

Up Next
Both the men's and women's teams will finish up its season after earning spots in the NCAA DII National Championships on Nov. 23 in Sacramento, California.