It was a day of highs and lows for the men’s cross-country team Friday at the NCAA Midwest Regionals in Springfield, Mo. After a fourth-place finish at the regionals, Illinois narrowly missed out on a berth in the NCAA Championships. On the other hand, two Illini runners — Jannis Toepfer and Hunter Mickow — qualified as individuals for a spot in next weekend’s national championship.

“I was obviously thrilled, as was Hunter, to make it to the NCAA Championships,” Toepfer said. “It was very bittersweet when we found out that we weren’t going to make it as a team. All the guys ran great, we just didn’t have luck go our way.”

As it did in 2011, Illinois will send two runners to the national championships. Mickow led the way for the Illini, finishing sixth overall with a time of 30 minutes, 29 seconds — the highest finish for an Illinois runner since Trent Hoerr in 2007. Toepfer finished 13th overall with a time of 30:41. Both earned an All-Region selections and will run in their first national meet in their collegiate careers.

“It was huge for the program for Jannis and Hunter to have the success they did on Friday,” head coach Jake Stewart said. “Both of them have grown so much over the season and have continually gotten better every day. I expect them to hold their own next Saturday in Louisville.”

As a team, Illinois came away with a fourth-place finish. Following the meet, the team was very confident that it would come away with a spot in the NCAA Championships. Because of some of the finishes in other regional meets across the country, the Illini missed out on a prime chance to reach its first national championship as a team since 1986.

Stewart spoke on the failure to reach the national meet, saying: “To be honest, all I can say is that we as a team were very disappointed. We were all impressed with our performance at the regional and were confident we would make it. Unfortunately, a couple things didn’t go our way. I know how much it would’ve meant for Hunter and Jannis to be running with the entire team.”

Stewart was critical of the qualification process because Illinois beat a number of the teams that qualified for the NCAA Championships head-to-head. In Stewart’s mind, the format should be changed, though he didn’t elaborate on how that process would work.

Contributing to the fourth-place finish was senior and 2011 NCAA championship qualifier, Jordan Hebert, who finished 26th overall with a time of 31:04. Also scoring points for Illinois were redshirt freshmen Tommy King and Ian Barnett , who finished 54th and 55th, respectively.

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State tied for first place, beating out third-place finisher Tulsa. Tulsa’s Chris O’Hare won the individual title in the regional.

Though Stewart is disappointed with the team barely missing out on a spot in the NCAA Championships, he reflected on the season, saying: “Our success this season proves that we are one of the best 25 teams in the country. We took many steps forward throughout the season, and I am very confident that we will only progress further in the next couple seasons.”

“Most of all, what I will remember most is how we as a team bounced back from the tough results at the Notre Dame meet,” Toepfer said. “We did a lot of good things as a team this season, and I am excited to see where we go in the future.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected].