Oct. 23, 2007

IRVING, Texas - The 2007 Conference USA men's and women's cross country championships are set for Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Santa Teresa Country Club in Santa Teresa, N.M. The one-day event will be hosted by UTEP at the scenic Santa Teresa Country Club Spanish Dagger course.

The men's championship will be an 8K with a start time of 10:30 a.m. MT, followed by the women's 5K race at 11:30 a.m. Following the completion of both championships, team and individual awards will be distributed. Admission is free.

2007 C-USA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS CENTRAL

2007 C-USA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2007 races look a lot like the 2006 event as the majority of the top runners return. For the men, 13 of the 15 All-C-USA selections will be competing, while 11 of the 15 all-conference women honorees have declared, as well as the 2005 individual champion Elizabeth Ambrus of UAB. Ambrus, a senior, missed the 2006 championship due to an injury.

UTEP and Tulsa men as well as Rice women bring national rankings into Saturday's event as the Miners hold the No. 3 slot in the United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Poll, after winning a very competitive Pre-National meet in Terre Haute, Ind., site of the 2007 NCAA Cross Country Championships. The Golden Hurricane finished sixth at the same event and owns a No. 17 national ranking.

Rice appears at No. 16 in the USTFCCA Women's Poll, while Tulsa (No. 6 Midwest), Tulane (No. 7 South Central), SMU (No. 8 South Central), UAB (No. 7 South) and UTEP (No. 15 Mountain) sport strong regional rankings.

Two-time defending men's champion UTEP has established conference records in each of the last two championships. The Miners scored 23 points in 2005 and bettered that performance in 2006 with a meet-best 21 points. Head coach Paul Ereng's roster includes one senior, Stephen Samoei, four juniors and two sophomores. Junior Patrick Mutai has won the individual title for the past two seasons, while Samoei was named the 2005 and 2006 C-USA Cross Country Athlete of the Year, after earning NCAA All-America accolades. Nicodemus Ng'etich was also named the league's newcomer and freshman of the year in 2006 and earned first team All-C-USA merits.

Edwin Henshaw of Tulsa is an individual that could give UTEP's lineup competition for top honors as the senior finished third a year ago. Henshaw, a native of Auckland, New Zealand, won the senior New Zealand Cross Country title at Wingatui Racecourse in Mosgiel, Dunedin, New Zealand on August 4. With the victory, he became only the eighth New Zealander to win both the junior and senior titles. Assisting Henshaw will be seniors Brett Turowski and Joel Stanloski, as well as sophomores Eric Harris and Kyle Dekker. Tulsa returns all five of the runners that placed in the top 15 from a team that finished second a year ago.

Rice men, who rank No. 7 in the South Central Region, will be led by juniors Brett Olson, Aaron Robson and Justin Maxwell. Robson and Maxwell were named to the 2006 All-C-USA second and third teams, respectively, while Olson has had a strong 2007 campaign.

Rice women enter the championship as the only C-USA team ranked among the USTFCCA top 30 as the Owls appear at No. 16. Head Coach Jim Bevan guided his 2005 squad to the league championship title but UAB edged the Owls by one point for the 2006 crown. Rice's strength appears to be running in a pack as all seventh runners finished within 1:03 of each other at the prestigious Pre-National meet, where they placed seventh among a field of 32. Rice returns all three of its all-conference runners from a year ago - senior Marissa Daniels, sophomore Nicole Mericle and senior Lennie Waite. Mericle had a solid rookie season as she was named C-USA Freshman and Newcomer of the year after earning All-C-USA honors. Waite was a second team selection after placing 10th in last year's meet. Daniels, who's earned back-to-back C-USA Athlete of the week honors this season, finished second to SMU's Rachel Forish who won the 2006 C-USA women's individual title with a time of 17:14.54.

Forish, a senior, garnish 2006 NCAA All-America honors and was named the South Central Region and C-USA Athlete of the Year. However, Forish is redshirting and will not be competing in this year's championship. Junior Jessa Simmons also earned all-conference honors as she finished 11th for third team accolades.

Tulsa sports one of the top runners in the nation in Alex Becker. Becker placed third at last year's championship and has had a solid senior campaign where she's earned two C-USA Athletes of the Week honors. The women's team finished fourth in 2006 and returns two runners that placed in the top 15 - Becker and sophomore Dawn Nagazina.

Seniors Whitney Mays and Elizabeth Hilligoss plus sophomore Kristina Olsen as well as Ambrus expects to guide UAB to its second-straight C-USA title. Mays and Hilligoss led the Blazers with second team all-conference honors with seventh and eighth place finishes, respectively, while Olsen earned third team honors with a 14th-place finish. UAB head coach Ray Stanfield was named C-USA Women's Coach of the Year.

UAB became the first C-USA member to sweep the fall women's championships as the Blazers won cross country, soccer and volleyball titles in 2006.

UTEP men and UAB women looks to defend their respective 2006 crowns, but will have tough competition from very strong and competitive league teams.