By: Alex Kline, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications

INDIANAPOLIS – The Cal Poly Pomona men's cross country team received an at-large bid into the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships on Monday afternoon, it was announced via press release on NCAA.com. It is the team's 24^th appearance at the national championships in program history, and their ninth in the past 11 seasons.
 
The 10K race will take place at Arcade Creek Cross Country Course in Sacramento on Saturday, November 23^rd, and be streamed live on NCAA.com starting at 10:00 AM PST. This will be the first time CPP has ever competed at the course.  
 
The top three teams in each region received automatic qualifiers for the national championships this past Saturday, making up 24 of the 34 teams to advance. The Broncos, finishing fourth in the west regional, had to wait and see if they were one of the 10 additional teams to receive an at-large bid. This is just the third time the Broncos have received an at-large bid in program history, as 21 of their 24 appearances have come via a top-three finish at regionals.
 
Last season, CPP finished 23^rd out of 34 teams at nationals in Joplin, Missouri on the campus of Missouri Southern State University. Only two of those seven runners – Leandro Candray and Tom McDonnell – ran for the Broncos at the west regionals this year. Joining those two at the national championships later this month will be Juan Ramos, Evan Franco, Chris Razo, Ethan Romero, and Christian Coley.
 
Surprisingly enough, Cal Poly Pomona is still the most recent west region school to win the DII national title in men's cross country. The 1983 squad, which was recently inducted into the Cal Poly Pomona Athletics Hall of Fame, claimed the program's only national title in Kenosha, Wisconsin on November 12^th, 1983, scoring 86 points among 17 teams. The 2024 Broncos look to add another trophy to the case next Saturday.