The Minot State University (MSU) cross country teams will look to extend their season and earn NCAA National Championship berths as the Beavers race at the NCAA Central Region Championships on Saturday, November 9, in Joplin, Missouri.

The Top 3 teams in the men’s and women’s races earn automatic berths to nationals, while the top 2 individuals not on an automatic qualifying team also receive automatic berths. The NCAA then selects 10 at-large teams and 8 additional at-large individuals.

Lofty goals for the Beavers but both MSU’s teams have been steadily improving all season and will make their run at top finishes this Saturday in the men’s 10-kilometer race, which starts at 10 a.m., and the women’s 6K, which starts at 11:15 a.m.

The 10K distance will be the first time this fall the Beaver men compete at that distance as all of the team’s previous races being at the 8K distance.

Leading the way all season long has been senior Grayson Bonilla who clocked a career-best time of 25 minutes, 42.9 seconds in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Championship hosted by MSU at Souris Valley Golf Course, and the seventh-fastest NCAA Division II time at the 8K distance.

On the women’s side, Paulette Dominguez has also been running extremely well as she broke the NCAA D-II school record in the 6K distance her last two times out, earning All-NSIC honors with her current best time of 21:40 at the NSIC Championships.

While she’ll be one of the Beavers’ top women runners, along with teammate Bailey Wride, who has also run extremely well as she was 24th at the NSIC Championships in 22:04.6 and ran a personal-best time of 21:54.8 in mid-October at the Marauder Open.