Montana State men's cross country runner Patrick Casey missed qualifying for the NCAA National Championships by a hair, head coach Dale Kennedy announced Monday morning. Four at-large individual runners are chosen from each region to go and Casey placed number five among runners from the Mountain Region in the at-large slots.
“We were hoping that maybe UTEP would get a team bid and then he would rise to number three as there were a couple UTEP guys ahead of him, but that didn't happen,” Kennedy said.
Casey, a sophomore from Laurel, garnered all-region honors Saturday at Albuquerque by placing 21st in the meet, becoming the first Bobcat since 2005 to do so.
“He's a guy that has a great future ahead of him,” Kennedy said. “He's a guy that's knocking on the door.”
