Rose Coats Earns Automatic Bid To NCAA Cross Country Championship

COLLEGE PARK, MD – After earning All-Regional honors on Friday with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional meet, Maryland sophomore Rose Coats earned an automatic spot in the 2024 NCAA Cross Country Championship. The national championship meet will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin on Saturday, Nov. 23 in Madison.
 
Coats becomes the sixth Terp in program history to qualify for the NCAA Championship and the first since Emily Bracher in 2018. 
 
Rose Coats – 2024 NCAA Championship
Emily Bracher – 2018 NCAA Championship
Alexandra Lucki – 2017 NCAA Championship
Julie Fricke – 2011 NCAA Championship
Rosalind Taylor – 1988 NCAA Championship
Jean Whitson – 1981 NCAA Championship
 
Both Taylor and Whitson, who competed in the first-ever NCAA women’s cross country championship, earned All-American honors.
 
Coats twice set the Maryland program record for a 6K race including this past Friday at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional where she clocked 19 minutes, 53.8 seconds. That mark shaved just over six seconds off her previous record, the first sub-20 minute 6K time in program history, which she set at the Princeton Fall Classic.
 
She earned her bid to the NCAA Championship as one of the top four individuals to finish at a regional race outside of those on qualifying teams. Overall, the Big Ten placed five individual runners into the NCAA Championship – Michigan State’s Rachel Forsyth (19:31.7), Penn State’s Florence Caron (19:41.7), Nebraska’s Ali Bainbridge (19:53.82), and Illinois’ Halle Hill (19:55.74).
 
Oregon, Minnesota, and Wisconsin each earned automatic team bids, while up to six other Big Ten teams could earn at-large bids which will be announced on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 5 PM.