DETROIT (11/8/2023) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's cross country team will head back to the postseason, this time in Wisconsin as the red, white and blue run in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships on Friday.

The event will be held at the University of Wisconsin's Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, with the men's 10k race starting at 1:30 p.m. (EST) and the women's 6k starting at 12:30. 

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The field will have 34 women's teams and 31 men's programs, including nationally ranked squads on the men's side in Wisconsin (#5), Butler (#12), Notre Dame (#17) and Michigan (#25).

The top 25 runners will be named All-Region, while the top two teams at each regional championship meet automatically qualify for the NCAA Division I championship. From each NCAA regional meet, the first four student-athletes not on a qualifying team will be automatic qualifiers to the NCAA championship meet. All individual automatic qualifiers must finish in the top 25 within their region.

Thirteen (13) at-large teams will be selected by the NCAA Division I Cross Country Subcommittee. This selection will be conducted on the Saturday following regional competition unless extraordinary circumstances arise. The committee will also select two at-large individuals by identifying the highest non-qualifying individual finishers at the regional meets. All individual at-large qualifiers must finish in the top 25 within their region.

The Titans are coming off the Horizon League Championships, where they placed 10th in the 8k race. 

Sophomore Joshua Otten was the top runner as he has been in all five meets on the season, finishing 23rd in 24:56, nine seconds shy of his career mark. Freshman Christopher Russelburg was 59th in 26:10, while junior Kenny Lashaway came in 71st with a time of 26:28.

The men's team will feature those three, along with graduate senior Oscar Hernandez, senior Kyle Foulk, junior Nicholas Fringer and freshman Elijah Jorgensen. 

The men saw Ben Kendell '18 earn runner-up at the regionals in 2018, en route to a spot in the NCAA Championships, and is still the only runner in school history to be named All-Region.

The men's best finish ever was 16th accomplished in 2014 and 1985.