Rotich gets NCAA national invite

PORTALES — The NCAA sent a message Sunday that the South Central region is the cream of the Division II cross country crop, with seven teams selected for both the men’s and women’s national championship on Dec. 1.

That confidence in the region meant Eastern New Mexico senior Mercy Rotich got an automatic invite.

Rotich finished 15th in Saturday’s South Regional championship at Metro State, and looked at that point like she might be on the bubble for an individual invite.

The NCAA creates the field first by giving 34 teams national spots — 24 earning them through top-three finishes at the NCAA’s eight regionals, and the other 10 at-large. Once those teams are named, there is a nationwide pool of unattached runners to consider. At least 24 of them — the top two in each region, another eight selected at-large — get invited. Anybody who finishes top five in any regional goes to nationals and does not count against the eight at-large selections.

Under that scenario, it was presumed bids would go to the South Central’s six nationally-ranked teams — Adams State, Western Colorado, Colorado Mines, Dallas Baptist, Black Hills State and UC-Colorado Springs. That would have made Sabrina Rautter of Metro State (ninth overall) and Lubbock Christian’s Amira Cunningham (10th), with Rotich the next unattached runner hoping for an at-large bid.

But when Monday’s invites were revealed, Metro State also got a team bid, elevating Rotich to join Cunningham as an automatic invite. Four unattached South Central runners are going in all, with Dixie State’s Billie Hatch and Colorado Christian’s Mandee Middleton getting at-large invites.

Greyhound coach Jeff Kavalunas admitted that if Metro State didn’t get a team bid, he wasn’t that confident Rotich would get an invite.

“I certainly thought Mercy still had a chance at an at-large bid because of the strength of our region,” Kavalunas said, “(but) you just never know. They ended up taking seven teams out of our region, and I’ve never seen that before.”

Rotich was even less optimistic. She went into the regional telling herself she needed to finish 10th to qualify, and said Kavalunas just kept telling her not to simply assume the season was over.

“Coach told me to wait until Monday,” Rotich said. “I wasn’t really sure. I didn’t have any hopes I’d made it to nationals.”

Rotich, who finished sixth in the 2016 nationals, expects a challenging course in Pittsburgh. The 2016 race, she said, was much more enjoyable because it was in Florida and had no weather or altitude issues.

There were no illusions any other Greyhound would get a spot, as the women’s team finished 17th and the men 24th at regionals and no other Greyhound finished in the top 50 in either race.

“We kind of struggled a little bit,” Kavalunas said. “It was the first time we hit that type of weather. It was tough. We’ve got to learn how to respond better.”

The other runners, Kavalunas said, are taking a recovery week and then training for the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons. For Rotich, cross country season continues.

“It’s not really going to change a whole lot (about practice),” Kavalunas said. “I’ve had her on a different schedule the last two weeks. Some of the days, it’s been her and I getting different training sessions in.”