RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- After dominating the Northwest Conference Championships, the George Fox cross country team continued their historic season, finishing inside the top three in both the men's and women's NCAA Regionals. The teams now await tomorrow's NCAA Nationals selections as they look to return to the NCAA National Championship for the second time in program history.

How It Happened
The women's team put together an extremely impressive performance in the 6K event to secure a second place team finish behind Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Sophomore Kayla Aalpoel once again led the way for Fox, clinching 5th overall with a time of 22.10.1. Following Aalpoel, Ellie Rising finished in 22:43.3 to take 11th place, with Breanna Schmitt right on her heels in 14th with her time of 22:45.5. Senior Brenna Sclair secured a top-20 finish in 23:01.7, while Jessie Bailey was 29th (23:18) and Hope Bridge placed 31st (23:21.2). 

The spread for the Bruins' top five was 1:15, and their final score was 74. Six of the seven racers finished inside the top-35, earning them All-Region honors. The team improved on their regional placing from 2022 by two spots.

The men's team also showed up, with another six runners earning All-Region nods on their way to a third place overall finish. Senior Peter Weiss was the top Fox finisher, coming in 7th with a 24:52.5 time in the 8K. Following Weiss, Austin Gappa finished in 15th (25:04.3), Alex Mills at 27th (25:24.1), Andrew Ross in 28th (25:29), Adam Petersen at 34th (25:55) and Gabriel Lachenmeier in 35th (25:42). 

Gappa, Mills, Ross and Petersen were all returning competitors from last year's Regionals, and each runner improved both in race pace and final position to help secure the team's podium finish. The spread for their top five was just 49 seconds and they recorded a final score of 104, only 11 points behind second-place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Pomona-Pitzer was victorious for the men's team.

What It Means
The Bruins put two teams in the top five at Regionals for the third straight year. A total of 12 runners received All-Region honors this year, seven more than their historic 2022-2023 season.

What Comes Next
The winners from Regionals received an automatic bid to Nationals, while the rest of the 32-team field will be selected by the NCAA on Sunday morning. The Bruins will need to be selected by the NCAA as an at-large bid, and currently project to be comfortably in the field, ranked 11th nationally on the men's side and 15th on the women's. Selection results will be released on ncaa.com.