Hollander, Frias selected for cross-country national championships

Mustang News Staff Report
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After posting top-10 finishes at the NCAA West Regional this past weekend, Cal Poly cross-country runners sophomore Laura Hollander and senior Chris Frias were selected to compete at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. on Nov. 23.

This past Saturday, the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Committee selected 38 individuals, including Hollander and Frias, to the men’s and women’s fields. Those 38 will join 31 seven-person teams that automatically qualified in their respective NCAA regional competitions.

Hollander finished seventh at the regional meet in Sacramento where she posted a time of 19:37 for the six kilometer course. Frias finished the 10 kilometer men’s race in ninth with a time of 29:55.

All individuals that qualified for this year’s championships finished in the top 25 of their region.

For Hollander, this is the second time in as many years that she will be making the trip to the national meet. She finished ninth overall and garnered All-American honors in her breakout freshman season.

“Laura was an All-American last year and that’s a goal, and obviously with Chris, too, he was up there running with the top guys in the West Region, which is arguably the toughest region. So what does he have to lose?” head coach Mark Conover said.

This marks the fourth time in program history since making the move to Division I that Cal Poly will send a runner from the women’s squad to the championships. It will be the 14th time a men’s runner has gone.

“It’s one of those races where 255 runners are on the line,” Conover said. “Everybody’s good, and if you run the right kind of race on the right day, anything is possible.”

The championships will be hosted by Indiana State at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. The men’s race will begin at 9 a.m PT, followed by the women’s race at approximately 10:15 a.m.

Stephan Teodosescu contributed to this report.