Nov. 11, 2008

IRVING, Texas- Making it to post-season play is a goal every team aims to achieve. Conference USA will send eight women's and six men's cross country teams to six of the nine NCAA regional meets this weekend.

The 15th-ranked Tulsa men will battle second-ranked Oklahoma State and No. 14 Minnesota for one of the two spots in the Midwest Region. The Cowboys are currently the top team in the region, followed by the Golden Gophers. The Golden Hurricane won its first C-USA championship title and placed eight runners on the All-C-USA teams, including four on the first team. Tulsa will be led by C-USA individual champion John Beattie. Beattie won the 8K race in a time of 23:30, the second all-time best championship mark. The junior outkicked UTEP's Japheth Ngo'joy down the stretch to become the first non-Miner individual champion since 2005.

UTEP is currently ranked 30th in the latest USTFCCCA Poll after placing all five runners in the top-12 at conference. The Miners will utilize their experience when they compete against No. 7 Northern Arizona, No. 11 BYU, and No. 16 Colorado in the Mountain Regional meet. Returning from a second-place finish a year ago, UTEP will attempt to capture one of the top-two automatic qualifying spots for the NCAA national meet on November 24.

Houston and Rice will travel to Waco, Texas for the South Central Regional meet to take on No. 22 Texas A&M and No. 24 Arkansas. The Owls will look to improve from last year's eighth-place finish behind All-C-USA first teamers Aaron Robson and Simon Bucknell.

C-USA Freshman of the Year, Zack Montijo, will need to lead East Carolina past No. 13 Virginia at the Southeast Regional meet in Clemmons, N.C. The Pirates will look to bounce back from last year's 27th-place finish as they set their eyes on a trip to Terre Haute, Ind., for nationals.

Rounding out the men's side of post-season competition will be Marshall at the Mid-Atlantic Regional. The Thundering Herd finished fourth at the C-USA championships behind Eric Frohnapfel, the 2007 C-USA Freshman of the Year.

On the women's side, Rice, SMU, and Houston will all travel to the South Central Regional. The 22nd-ranked Owls took first-place honors last year and will use the trio of Nicole Mericle, Lennie Waite, and Allison Pye to attempt to win back-to-back team titles.

The 19th-ranked Mustangs return both the 2006 and 2007 South Central Regional Female Athlete of the Year in senior Rachel Forish and sophomore Silje Fjortoft. Fjortoft also claimed the C-USA individual title after clocking the fastest 5K time in C-USA history, 16:46. All seven SMU runners collected all-conference accolades at this year's championship. SMU will use its depth to strip the Regional title from Rice.

The Cougars, who took 13th-place at the regional meet in 2006, will follow behind C-USA Outstanding Freshman of the Year, Stephanie Aldea, to out beat four USTFCCCA top-30 teams.

UAB and UCF will compete in the South Region which boasts No. 3 Florida State and No. 15 Florida. The Blazers took fifth-place last year and maintained a top-four finish in each of their races this season. UAB's Stephanie Gammon will be a strong factor in their race to the top.

The Mid-Atlantic Region boasts the top region with the most nationally ranked teams at five. The Thundering Herd of Marshall will have to face No. 4 Princeton, No. 5 Villanova, and No. 6 West Virginia for the right to compete at nationals.

East Carolina seized a top-25 Southeast Regional finish in 2007 and will look to Brittany Copeland to help them surpass last year's mark. Rounding out the women's side will be UTEP at the Mountain Regional. The Miners will also face four nationally ranked teams in Fort Collins, Colo., in No. 9 Texas Tech, No. 21 New Mexico, No. 26 BYU and No. 28 Northern Arizona.

Following Regional competition Saturday, the top-two teams from each region will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships. An additional 13 teams will be selected to receive an at-large bid and the top-four regional finishers not on a qualifying team will also receive an invitation to the championship meet.

The NCAA championship cross country meet will take place in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 24.