Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska-Kearney cross country team finished ninth and 12th at the 2011 NCAA Central Regional meet Saturday at Washington Park in Denver.

The Loper men, facing six of the nation's top 17 teams, scored 225 points to come in ninth out of 21. UNK was in contention for one of the region's six NCAA Championship spots but were edged out in the end.

Click HERE for meet results and honors.

Second-ranked Adams State easily won (28) with top-ranked Western State second (61) and 4th-ranked Colorado School of Mines third (72). 

The other schools to qualify for the NCAA's from the region were Augustana, Colorado-Colorado Springs and meet host Metro State. The 16th-ranked Metro Roadrunners tallied 189 points, just 36 points fewer than the Lopers.

A young UNK women's team was coming off a strong sixth place showing at the RMAC Championships. Today they scored 334 points to finish 12th out of 21 schools.

Five team spots were up for grabs and they were taken by No. 1 Western (37), No. 3 Adams (47), No. 4 Augustana (70), No. 8 Mary, N.D. (77) and Minnesota-Duluth (214).

All was not lost for UNK as Minden senior Al Sanabria is returning to the NCAA Championships as he snagged the second individual spot from the region.

He ran the 8k course in 33:29, good for 12th place and all-region honors. Albion sophomore Kevin Carder came in 27th place (34:17), out of 137 runners, to miss all-region accolades by two places or five seconds.

Gabriel Proctor of Western was the men's winner (32:10) with Niciase Kazingo of New Mexico Highlands earning the other individual NCAA spot (9th/33:18).  This fall, the NCAA's are Nov. 19th in Spokane, Wash.

The Loper women were led by true freshmen Briana Adams (Pierce H.S.), who came in 38th place in a time of 24:47. Junior Brooke Harris (48th/25:09) also cracked the top 60.

Western's Lauren Kleppin was the winner (22:13) with runners from Colorado Mesa and Winona State taking the NCAA spots.