Neiva Sets Personal Best to Qualify for NCAA Cross Country Championships

FAYATTEVILLE, ARK. – Victor Neiva earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Cross Country Championships with a 10^th place finish to lead UNT cross country on Friday at the NCAA South Central Region Championship at Agri Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Neiva set a personal best in the 10,000 meters with a time of 29:41.7. He will return to the national meet after earning an at-large bid a season ago. It is his third consecutive year earning all-region accolades.

"Victor is a gamer, he is tough," UNT cross country coach Erik Stevens said. "He ran smart and positioned himself well early. We had discussed that it was probably going to take a top-10 finish to get in with this group and he positioned himself in that top-10. We're super excited to have him get back there for a second time and we've talked about it since last year. He knows what he did wrong last year at the national meet and his whole goal is to be an All-American this year. If he runs as aggressive as he did today, we will be able to make that happen."

Led by Neiva, the UNT men finished 12^th as a team, marking a major step forward from last year's 24^th place finish. Alan Proenza placed 72^nd with a time of 31:48.3, Jake Meyering placed 81^st with a time of 31:59.6, Mason Garner recorded a personal best 32:04.5 to place 83^rd and Luke Canon finished 86^th with a time of 32:10.2. Hardy Swann and Jake Johnson also competed in the meet, collecting times of 32:36.4 and 33:34.2, respectively.

"There are a few things we have to fine tune on the men's side, but we're a young group" Stevens said. "I was really excited to see how they handled their first 10K and how they worked through it. I think they put the standard out there for us and we know what we have to continue to do to get stronger."

In the women's 6,000 meters race, the unit finished 16^th marking the highest finish at an NCAA Regional Championship for the women's team since 2018. Trinity Trotter led the group with a time of 22:06.4 to finish 55^th, while Aditi Silwal placed 78^th with a time of 22:30.4. Miranda Vreeland finished 112^th with a time of 23:01.0, Tiblets Abreha set a personal best time of 23:01.5 in the 6K to place 114^th and Addison Sykora finished 148^th with a time of 23:48.4. Amy Pritchard and Marisa Jacober also finished with times of 25:05.8 and 25:33.6.

"They went out and were aggressive like we wanted to be," Stevens said. "We turned it around big time from last year to this year. That's a big jump for the group and I'm really happy for them. I think they're happy with it, but know there is more in the tank. It's a good spot to be in and they're going to do everything they can to continue improving."

The cross country season will come to a close when Neiva competes at the NCAA Championships on Nov. 18 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

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Neiva Sets Personal Best to Qualify for NCAA Cross Country Championships

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Players Mentioned

Tiblets Abreha

Luke Canon

Mason Garner

Marisa Jacober

Jake Johnson

Jake Meyering

Victor Neiva

Amy Pritchard

Alan Proenza

Aditi Silwal

Hardy Swann

Addison Sykora

Trinity Trotter

Miranda Vreeland

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