Milwaukee City Wire

The Milwaukee men's and women's cross country teams are preparing for the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships in Norton, Ohio. The event will be hosted by the Mid-American Conference at Silver Creek Metro Park on Friday. The competition begins with the women's 6K race at 10:00 a.m. (CT), followed by the men's 10K at 11:00 a.m. (CT).

Top two team finishers in both categories will automatically advance to the NCAA National Championships scheduled for November 23. Additionally, thirteen at-large teams will be selected from nine regions. Individual qualifiers will include the top four finishers from each regional whose teams do not qualify.

Returning competitor Anelise Egge leads the Panthers, having finished 28th in last year's regionals with a career-best time of 21:09.1. Recently, Egge won the Horizon League Individual Championship on November 2, finishing in 21:07.9 and earning first-team All-Horizon League honors.

Cailin Kinas and Rachel Helm also received All-League honors, securing second-team spots with their performances. Helm completed her run in 22:04.0 for tenth place, closely followed by Kinas at 22:05.9 for eleventh place.

For the men's team, Cullen Boyle was notable last year with a time of 32:49.7 at regionals and recorded an impressive run this season with an 8K time of 24:50.6 during October's Joe Piane Invitational.

Carter Eckhoff led Milwaukee at the Horizon League Championships, finishing in 28th place with a time of 25:44.6, while Sam Schreiber came in shortly after in 32nd place at 25:55.9.

Several personal bests were achieved recently during the Horizon League Championships two weeks ago; Brittany Helm clocked in at 24:41.2 and Grace Kline at 25:34.0 for the women's team, while Zach Moss improved his mark to 27:27.2 on the men's side.

Successful qualifiers will compete next at the NCAA Cross Country National Championships on November 23 in Madison, Wisconsin.