TicketsCINCINNATI — Cincinnati cross country stars Nickson Kogei and Ann Lemirisho have etched their names in the record books with their bids to the NCAA Cross Country National Championships, as announced by the organization Saturday evening.
The championship race will be at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Missouri on Saturday, Nov. 22. It will be streamed live on ESPNU with the women's race at 10:20 a.m. ET and the men's race at 11:10 a.m. ET.
Lemirisho, a freshman from Ngong Hills, Kenya, is the first women's qualifier in program history after finishing fourth at Friday's Great Lakes Regional in Evansville, Indiana. It comes on the heels of Claire Curtsinger last year finishing 13th, UC's highest since 1992. Friday's event was the second time UC ran the course this season, with this race featuring a 16-second improvement from her first time there (19:56.7 the latter race).
Kogei, a sophomore out of Eldoret, Kenya, is the third Bearcat to win the Great Lakes Regional title, joining Aaron Bienenfeld (2019) and Eric Finan (2010). He is also the 11th in program history to qualify for the nationals. His 29:42.74 mark set the Angel Mounds 10K course record, breaking it by seven seconds from Butler's Simon Bedard in 2021. Kogei earlier this season captured the 8K record there as well.
Kogei has also won four of the five events in which he's competed this year, with the exception being eighth at the loaded Big 12 Championships to still claim podium honors.