TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Six West Coast Conference programs will be represented at the 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Nov. 20, at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida.
 
The women's 6K race will start at 7:20 a.m. PT, and the men’s 10K race will begin at 8:10 a.m. PT. The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships will be televised live on ESPNU. Fans can also follow along with live timing here.
 
Three WCC men’s teams will compete in the NCAA Championship, with BYU earning the automatic qualifier after winning the NCAA Mountain Regional on Nov. 12. Portland and Gonzaga each earned an at-large selection.
 
The BYU women’s team, the defending NCAA Champions, earned an at-large selection after finishing third in the NCAA Mountain Regional on Nov. 12. San Francisco’s Ruby Smee and Gonzaga’s Kristen Garcia each qualified as individuals.  
 
In all, 31 teams were selected to participate in each championship. The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the nine regions, for a total of 18 teams. Thirteen additional teams were selected at-large.
 
The BYU men enter the NCAA Championships ranked No. 2 nationally in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll after knocking off No. 1 Northern Arizona in the NCAA Mountain Regionals last week. Conner Mantz, the defending NCAA individual champion, captured his third WCC title last month. A victory would make Mantz just the fourth man to capture consecutive NCAA titles since 2000. Last year, Mantz clocked a 29:26.1 to finish first among individuals, joining head coach Ed Eyestone (1984) and Josh Rohatinsky (2006) as the third athlete in program history to be crowned an individual national champion. Mantz is the only BYU men’s cross country athlete to record three career top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships.
 
The Gonzaga men, who qualified for the NCAA Championships as a team for the first time in program history in the 2020-21 spring season, earned an at-large selection to Nationals again this fall. The Zags, ranked No. 21 nationally, finished second at the WCC Championships on Oct. 29 and fifth at the NCAA West Regionals on Nov. 12. Gonzaga finished 27th overall as a team at the 2020-21 NCAA Championships. James Mwaura will be making his third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships. He also qualified as an individual in the 2019 event.  
 
 
Portland enters Saturday’s NCAA Men’s Cross Country Championships ranked No. 22 nationally. The Pilots earned their 22nd bid to Nationals since 1993, after placing third at the NCAA West Regionals and third at the WCC Championships. Portland placed 21st as a team in the 2020-21 NCAA Championships.
 
Six of the seven runners from BYU’s 2020-21 NCAA title squad are back this season and set to compete for the Cougars on Saturday, led by two-time WCC Champion Whittni Orton. Also returning for the Cougars is Anna Camp-Bennett, Aubrey Frentheway, Lexy Halladay, McKenna Lee, Sara Musselman and Anna Martin. BYU had four runners finish in the top-40 of the 2020-21 NCAA Championships, including Camp-Bennett (11), Frentheway (15) and Orton (17).
 
BYU is looking to become the 12th team to win consecutive NCAA Women’s Cross Country titles. The Cougars accomplished the feat with championships in 2001 and 2002.
 
Garcia will make her fourth NCAA Championships appearance, after finishing third in the NCAA West Regionals on Nov. 12. She finished seventh at the WCC Championships on Oct. 29. Garcia placed a career-best 129th in the 2020-21 NCAA Championships, crossing the finish line at 21:44.1. She was the first Gonzaga women's runner in the event since the Bulldogs qualified as a team in 2015.
 
Smee qualified for Saturday’s NCAA Championships after finishing second in the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento on Nov. 12. She also placed second at the WCC Championships on Oct. 29. Smee's participation continues the USF program's tradition of having at least one athlete competing for in the NCAA Championships each year, dating back to 2012.