Nov. 16, 2007

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IRVING, Texas - Conference USA will be represented by three teams and three individuals at the 2007 NCAA Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships on Monday, Nov. 19, in Terre Haute, Ind.

Indiana State University will host the one-day event at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course located at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center. The men's race will begin at Noon (ET), followed by the women's race at 12:55 p.m. Both championship races will be broadcast live on CSTV. CSTV will also be offering the television feed as free online video on each institutional site competing in the event.

UTEP men and Rice women automatically qualified for nationals by finishing among the top two teams in their region championships, while the Tulsa men obtain an at-large selection for the first time in school history.

Junior Alex Becker of Tulsa, senior Elizabeth Ambus of UAB as well as SMU freshman Silje Fjortoft will compete in the women's race as individuals. Thirty-eight individuals, the first four athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team and two additional qualifiers, were selected to participate in each championship. All individual qualifiers must have finished in the top 25 in their region.

This marks the most team qualifiers at an NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship since the league qualified two in 1998 (Tulane and USF).

The third-ranked Miners finished second at the NCAA Mountain Region Meet in Ogden, Utah, to receive an automatic bid. UTEP scored 56 point, finishing behind defending national champion Colorado with 47 points. Senior Stephen Samoei led the team with a time of 29:54.5, finishing 2.4 seconds behind Northern Arizona's Lopez Lomong. Samoei, a two-time All-American has been named C-USA Athlete of the Week four times this year and took the individual title at the Conference USA Championship Meet two weeks ago. He was the lone qualifier for the NCAA Championship Meet a year ago.

The Golden Hurricane club teamed up for a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional, barely missing the automatic ticket to nationals. TU's John Beattie placed among the top-six finisher, while teammate Edwin Henshaw would have placed among the top three but pulled out of the race with a broken foot.

For the second-consecutive year, Becker will participate in this year's national championship as an individual, an event she placed 34th at a year ago. Becker won the 2007 C-USA individual title after having a strong performance at the Pre-Nationals meet earlier in the season where she finished seventh, on the same 6K course she'll run on Monday.

The Rice women will be making just their fourth team appearance at the NCAA championships after winning the South Central Region. That victory moved the Owls up to No. 11 in the national poll and six Owls were named to the 2007 Division I Women's All-Region Cross Country team for the South Central region. Rice led the region with six honorees including freshman Allison Pye, sophomore Nicole Mericle freshman Becky Wade and seniors Callie Wells, Lennie Waite, and Marissa Daniels.

An extremely talent and impressive young runner, Fjortoft won the NCAA South Central Regional Championship at Agri Park on Nov. 10, crossing the line of the 6K course in 20:34.2. Fjortoft, who two weeks ago was named the C-USA Freshman of the Year, earned All-Region honors for her effort and becomes the second SMU runner to win the race in as many years, as Rachael Forish won the event a year ago.

Ambrus automatically qualified for the national championship meet by clocking a ninth-place time of 20:58.79 at the NCAA South Region meet, earning her All-South Region honors. Her previous trip to the national meet was in 2005, when she was named C-USA Female Athlete of the Year and placed eighth in the region meet.

Earlier this year, Ambrus missed three weeks of training and one meet due to an illness. Since her return, Ambrus has had impressive performances at the Conference USA Championship, where she finished seventh, and at the South Region Championship.

For NCAA Men's and Women's Cross Country Results:
• NCAA Cross Country Championships

Live TV coverage: The championships will be broadcast live on CSTV. CSTV will also be offering the television feed as free online video on each institutional site competing in the event.