OKLAHOMA CITY (Nov. 4, 2021) – This cross country season has been somewhat of a roller coaster for Oklahoma Christian's men's team, but the way coach Wade Miller sees it, there's still much potential just waiting to burst forth from the Eagles' squad.

He is hopeful that will occur Saturday morning at 10:15 a.m., when the Eagles will toe the line in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championship race, hosted by Lubbock Christian at its Chaparral Ridge Cross Country Course in Lubbock, Texas.

The 10,000-meter South Central race is arguably the toughest of eight regional events being contested Saturday that will determine the team and many individual qualifiers for the Division II Championship race, set for Nov. 20 in Tampa, Fla.

Teams from Lone Star Conference and the powerful Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference compete in the South Central Region, and six of them are ranked in the top 30 nationally – No. 2 Colorado School of Mines, No. 3 Adams State (Colo.), No. 8 Colorado Christian, No. 12 Colorado-Colorado Springs, No. 16 Western Colorado and No. 27 West Texas A&M, the LSC champion.

OC finished seventh as a team in the LSC Championship two weeks ago in Lawton, but the Eagles had two top-five individual finishers in third-place Colten Brown, a sophomore from Boise City, and fifth-place Colton Meyers, a senior from Allen, Texas. With high individual finishes on Saturday, Brown or Meyers could be in the mix to earn an individual spot in the national race. Those selections will be announced Monday.

The top three team finishers in the race will automatically qualify for the national meet, and given the depth of the South Central Region, several others could potentially earn one of eight at-large team selections.

Behind Brown and Meyers, the rest of OC's lineup on Saturday will include junior Jelte van Atten of Leiden, Netherlands, freshman Griffin Chesire of Eldoret, Kenya, sophomore Kolten Johnson of Lewisburg, Tenn., freshman Cade Berkey of Hydro and freshman Christian Fair of Stillwater.

Brown, Meyers, van Atten and Johnson all ran on the Chaparral Ridge course last November when the Eagles competed in the Division II XC National Invitational in Lubbock. Brown finished 23rd individually in that race, held in lieu of NCAA postseason races that were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have some goals that we haven't yet been able to accomplish," Miller said. "We have put together several good weeks of work since the conference meet, so we are looking forward to the regional meet this weekend and the opportunity to compete in a really strong race. 

"Colten Brown and Colton Meyers have been up front for us all season and we will need the same from them and several others that we will rely on for breakout races this season. We haven't quite reached our potential this year as a team and I anticipate that we will take advantage of this opportunity to do so."

The race will be streamed on the Lone Star Conference Digital Network at https://lonestarconferencenetwork.com/lcu/?bfplayvid=305978 . Live stats for the race can be found here.