MADISON, Wis. - Akis Medrano is set to be the first Sycamore to compete at the NCAA Cross Country Championships since John Mascari in 2015 when he races at Zimmer Championship Course in Wisconsin on Saturday.
 
The women's 6K championship race will begin at 11:45 a.m. ET and Medrano will take the course at 12:45 p.m. ET for the men's 10K championship race.
 
"Akis spent 52 weeks preparing meticulously and passionately to qualify for the NCAA Championship meet," Associate Head Coach for Cross Country Kyle Walsh said. "He has accomplished many great feats along the way, but this is the pinnacle for distance runners. It's one big race with all of the best runners in the country."
 
Wisconsin is hosting the championships for the first time since 1978, and will play host to thirty-one teams who 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. Thirty-eight individuals were selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. All individual qualifiers finished in the top-25 in their regions.
 
The Boswell, Ind.-native, originally a walk-on for the Sycamores, has had a stellar senior campaign for the Sycamores, making great strides throughout the 2018 season en route to being the first Sycamore to qualify for the championships since John Mascari qualified in 2015.
 
He started his season with two top-three finishes at the Miami Opener and John McNichols Invite, before claiming a big individual victory at the Joe Piane Invitational. Medrano raced well against some staunch competition to claim victory in the five-mile race with a time of 24:31.9, the best race of his career at Notre Dame.
 
On October 13, Wisconsin hosted the Pre-National Invitational for a preview of the championship course and Medrano earned a top-50 finish with some of the top athletes in the nation, taking 47th at 24:36.00. Two weeks later at the MVC Championships he cut 30 seconds off of his 8K time to earn All-Valley honors with a third place finish and time of 24:06.40, the third-best time in ISU history.
 
All the hard work that the senior put in during the season paid off last Friday, as he clocked an impressive personal-best time of 31:27.40 in the men's 10K at the Great Lakes Regional, which was good for a 14th place finish. His placement gave him his first All-Region honor and allowed him to be one of the four at-large athletes from the region.
 
"He is fit, feeling sharp and is mentally focused to put together another great race to end his Sycamore Cross Country career," Walsh said.
 
Medrano is now one of ten Sycamore athletes to compete at the NCAA Cross Country Regionals, joining Sycamore greats Charlie Warthan (1970, 1971), Kyle Hobbs (1991), Debbi Ramseyer (1992, 1993), Jason Gunn (1999, 2000), Jessica Crowder (2003), Justin Kunz (2006), Scott Keeney (2008), Eric Schulz (2009) and John Mascari (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015).
 
"Top-40 is All-American and that would be a dream come true. The tight squeeze between 40th and 100th is actually very tight with the depth of the field and the caliber of athletes lining up. He'll put himself in the middle of that group and use all of his God-given tools to make Sycamore nation proud. I'm excited he gets to represent Indiana State Cross Country in this outstanding event," Walsh said.
 
The championships will be streamed live on FloTrack's subscription service.
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Cross Country teams, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.