Guevara Mateo's Run to the NCAA National Championships

FITCHBURG, MA: The Fitchburg State men's cross country team will send Paulino Guevara Mateo (Cambridge, MA) to the Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to compete in the NCAA DIII National Cross Country Championship, as announced by the NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Committee.

Guevara Mateo has been a standout student-athlete for the Falcons' men's cross country team this season. The freshman runner has been named the MASCAC Runner of the Week four times and has also earned the conference's Rookie of the Week award five times. Throughout the season, he finished in first place in four of the eight races he competed in. In the races where Guevara Mateo didn't finish first, he placed second, with his only less successful finish being fourth in the first race of his college career.  

The achievements continued as the season wrapped up in the MASCAC Championship race. The race demonstrated his dominance as he finished first with a time of 25:06, 56 seconds ahead of the second-place runner. His victory contributed to the Falcons securing a third-place team finish in the conference. Additionally, Guevara Mateo earned both Runner of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors, along with a MASCAC First Team All-Conference award.  

Next, the team traveled to Hopkinton, NH, to compete at the DIII All New England Championships held at the Fairgrounds, where Guevara Mateo once again finished first, earning the title of East Regional Champion. This milestone marks the first time in Fitchburg State men's cross country history that a runner has achieved this, and he did so with a time of 24:31.6. His victory secured him a spot among the seven regional individuals invited to compete in the NCAA National Championship, despite the team not qualifying. Seventy athletes nationwide were selected based on finishing in the top seven in their regions and not being part of a qualifying team.  

Converse University and OneSpartanburg, Inc. are organizing the championships on November 22 at the Roger Milliken Cross Country course located at the Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The men's race will start at 10 a.m. Eastern time. A live webcast of the event will be available on NCAA.com from 10 a.m. Eastern until the awards ceremony concludes.

To view the complete NCAA release, click HERE. 

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