INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (naccsports.org) --- Benedictine University senior Karan Shetty and Concordia University Wisconsin junior Emma Ahrens have been selected to compete in the 2025 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships. This year's championships will be held Saturday, Nov. 22 at Roger Milliken Research Park in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The 8-kilometer men’s race will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern, followed by the 6-kilometer women’s race at 11 a.m. Eastern.

In order to be eligible to participate in the championships, teams and individuals had to qualify in their respective NCAA regional competitions that was held this weekend.

Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in each championship. The top seven-person team automatically qualified from each of the 10 regions, for a total of 10 teams. Twenty-two additional teams were selected at-large.

Seventy individuals, the first seven student-athletes from each region who are not part of a qualifying team, were selected to participate in each championship. 

Shetty will make his second appearance at the national meet in three years after finishing 24th at Saturday's NCAA Division III Midwest Region Championships hosted by Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. He traversed the 8-kilometer circuit at the Max Championship Cross Country Course in 25:04.6. Shetty's return to the national meet was far from guaranteed as the NCAA Division III Cross Country and Track and Field Committee needed to select at least five teams - the champion plus four at-large - from the Waverly regional. The committee selected exactly five teams, allowing Shetty to secure the seventh-and-final individual spot.

Ahrens qualified for her first national cross country meet with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Division III North Region Championships hosted by UW-Eau Claire. She stopped the clock at Whitetail Golf Course in 22:06.2, and was the first individual off the board after runners from the qualifying teams were excluded.