2024 USTFCCCA D-III CROSS COUNTRY REGIONAL AWARDS
2024 MIAC MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY AWARDS
MINNEAPOLIS -- Augsburg University men's cross country runner
Mohammed Bati (JR, Dodola,Ethiopia/GAP School) has been named the 2024 U.S. Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Division III North Region Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year, it was announced on Tuesday. The Auggie runner was also recently named as the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's Men's Cross Country Runner of the Year.
Bati claimed both the MIAC and NCAA Division III North Regional titles this season, qualifying for this Saturday's (11/23) NCAA Division III National Championships, which will be held at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind. It will be the second time that Bati will compete in the national championships, after
finishing 168th in the 2022 meet.
Bati has won each of his five 8,000-meter cross country races this season, breaking his old school record in three straight races, including a 23:54.6 time in
winning the MIAC championship for the third straight year on Nov. 2.
Bati won the NCAA Division III North Regional title this past Saturday with a 24:20.6 time, claiming the title by 9.7 seconds over the second-place finisher, Aidan Matthai of Wisconsin-La Crosse, in the 220-runner men's race. In the
most recent NCAA Division III men's cross country individual rankings, by FloTrack.org on Nov. 5, Bati was ranked 13th nationally.
Bati has competed in 19 races in his collegiate career, claiming the individual crown in 13 of them. He has run 14 sub-25-minute 8,000-meter cross country races in his college career.
It marks the sixth time an Augsburg men's cross country runner has qualified for the national championships, and Bati now joins Brent Haglund (2008, 2009) as Auggies who have qualified for two national meets. Micheale Tesema competed at the national meet in 2012, and Dan Spies competed at the 1996 national meet. Bati's win marked the first time an Auggie men's runner has won an NCAA regional meet, with the previous best finish coming with Tesema's sixth-place finish in 2012.
In track and field, Bati is a four-time All-MIAC competitor and has earned three conference titles, in the 2023 MIAC indoor 5,000-meter run, and the 2024 MIAC outdoor 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runs. He holds school records in the indoor mile (4;15.20), 3,000-meter (8:24.31), indoor 5,000-meter (14:37.67), outdoor 5,000-meter (14:28.17) and outdoor 10,000-meter (30:10.37) runs.
