Peoria, Ill. ? Senior Colby Wissel qualified for the NCAA Championships for the Kansas University cross country team with his fifth-place finish at the Midwest Regional Championships on Saturday afternoon.

As a team, the KU men finished 10th and the women placed 12th in the 19-team field.

Wissel, along with sophomore Lauren Bonds and fellow senior Paul Hefferon, each earned all-region honors with career-best times.

Wissel finished with a career-best time of 30:11 in the 10K race, topping his previous best of 30:53 at the 2006 NCAA Championships.

Wissel qualifies for the championships by finishing as one of the top four individual competitors that are not part of automatic qualifying teams.

The Midwest Regional Championships may have been the final cross country race for many of the 2007 seniors. Neither the men’s or women’s teams automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships.

The NCAA will announce the 13 at-large teams and the two at-large runners who will participate for in the Championships on Monday.