Seymour and Thiessen Earn At-Large Selection to NCAA Cross Country Championships
November 13, 2021 | Track & Field
INDIANAPOLIS – Tennessee seniors Sydney Seymour and Karl Thiessen have been selected as at-large individual qualifiers for next week's NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, as announced on the NCAA selection show Saturday afternoon.
The NCAA meet is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida. The women's race will begin at 10:20 a.m. ET, followed by the men's race at 11:10 a.m.
Thirty-eight individuals were selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. All individual qualifiers finished in the top 25 in their regions.
For Seymour, it is her second trip to the NCAA championships after reaching the national meet as an individual last season. The Seven Hills, Ohio, native is the first Lady Vol to make back-to-back trips to NCAAs since Chelsea Blaase went back-to-back in 2014 and 2015.
The Lady Vol has performed well all season and has not finished outside the top 10 all year. Seymour has a pair of wins to her name in 2021 and finished third at both the Roy Griak Invitational and NCAA South Regional. At SECs, Seymour finished ninth overall.
Thiessen will make his NCAA championships debut next week after finishing seventh overall at the NCAA South Regional. The two-time NCAA All-South Region honoree is the first Vol to reach the NCAA meet since Zach Long in 2018.
It is also the first time since 2018 that Tennessee will send a male and female representative. That year, Zach Long and Megan Murray ran for the Vols and Lady Vols. Murray finished 139th, while Long placed 204th.
The 2021 NCAA Cross Country National Championships will air live on ESPNU and the ESPN App beginning at 10 a.m.
For the most up-to-date information on Tennessee cross country and track & field, follow @Vol_Track on Twitter and Instagram.
The NCAA meet is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida. The women's race will begin at 10:20 a.m. ET, followed by the men's race at 11:10 a.m.
Thirty-eight individuals were selected to participate in each championship through an automatic qualifier and at-large selection process. All individual qualifiers finished in the top 25 in their regions.
For Seymour, it is her second trip to the NCAA championships after reaching the national meet as an individual last season. The Seven Hills, Ohio, native is the first Lady Vol to make back-to-back trips to NCAAs since Chelsea Blaase went back-to-back in 2014 and 2015.
The Lady Vol has performed well all season and has not finished outside the top 10 all year. Seymour has a pair of wins to her name in 2021 and finished third at both the Roy Griak Invitational and NCAA South Regional. At SECs, Seymour finished ninth overall.
Thiessen will make his NCAA championships debut next week after finishing seventh overall at the NCAA South Regional. The two-time NCAA All-South Region honoree is the first Vol to reach the NCAA meet since Zach Long in 2018.
It is also the first time since 2018 that Tennessee will send a male and female representative. That year, Zach Long and Megan Murray ran for the Vols and Lady Vols. Murray finished 139th, while Long placed 204th.
The 2021 NCAA Cross Country National Championships will air live on ESPNU and the ESPN App beginning at 10 a.m.
For the most up-to-date information on Tennessee cross country and track & field, follow @Vol_Track on Twitter and Instagram.
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