DENVER – JJ Ramey had it Saturday at the NCAA Division II Cross Country South Central Regional.
 
Now the question is, was it good enough?
 
Ramey finished 19^th individually in Division II's best cross country regional and, after team qualifiers are taken out of the equation, he may have placed well enough to have qualified for the Division II National Championships.
 
"He's got a shot," said Amanda Rego, MSU Denver's associate head coach. "The qualification process is complicated, so we're at the mercy of how the other regions go. But I'm super proud of him. He's been looking incredible since the summer and since our first workout right here back in August. I told him then that he had a chance of going to nationals and doing something, and he bought into it.
 
"He's learned to train and race like he belongs."
 
The national field will be announced on Monday.
 
"I'm right on the edge," Ramey said. "It's super close. We'll see by Monday, but I think there's a decent chance."
 
What will a weekend of waiting be like?
 
"I'm not too worried about it," Ramey said. "I did everything I could today. So whatever happens, happens. It's out of my hands now and I'm happy with how this (race) ended."
 
Running on their home course at Washington Park, both the MSU Denver men and women placed 13^th among 25 teams.
 
"It wasn't what we wanted team-place performance-wise, but we had some really gutsy performances individually," Rego said. "We had people stepping up who maybe weren't normally in that order on the team who finished higher. And that's what it's all about in cross country."
 
Ramey ran 10 kilometers in 31 minutes, 43.7 seconds.
 
"Once we got past halfway, I knew I still had it," Ramey said. "That's kind of the tipping point where you can either feel the legs going or you can really tell if you've got it in the tank for the second half of the race. I could tell that I had it."
 
The top three teams (Colorado School of Mines, Western Colorado and Colorado Christian) all qualified automatically. Assuming that both fourth-place UCCS and fifth-place West Texas A&M both earn at-large entries, that would put only three individual runners ahead of Ramey. The top two qualify for nationals, which means Ramey would be in line for one of eight national at-large entries.
 
On Saturday, Ramey followed his race plan successfully.
 
"We were a little worried about the snow, because you never know how fast you want to get out, just in case people are going down," he said. "But I went out pretty easy. I was a little further back in terms of places, but it was easy to move up. I felt like I was passing people the whole time. The plan was to go out hard and stay up there."
 
Noel Lopez finished 34^th, Oticio Herrera was 90^th, Dylan Angel Lainez was 94^th and Ty Schauer was 108^th.
 
For the women, Abi Read was 43^rd, Caitlin Cornell was 67^th, Audrey Orstead 71^st, Heidi Yagen 96^th and Audrynn Street 104^th.
 
"Abi went out on a high note," Rego said. "She gave everything she had and she was passing people from the first K to the finish. She's always a very smart runner."
 
A particular highlight included Yagen – the RMAC's Summit Award winner for having the highest grade point average (plus the most credit hours earned) at the league championships – finishing fourth among the team to have her points scored.
 
"Heidi has been our cheerleader, our rah-rah girl all season," Rego said. "She always brings the energy to practice and has helped get our younger girls through a long season. She's someone who could be happy just to be in our top seven based on where she was, but she wasn't just settling for that."