Oct. 31, 2008

Cullowhee, NC- The Western Carolina men's and women's cross country teams will competing in the annual Southern Conference Championships with the women's 5K race at 10 a.m. ET, followed by the men's 8K race at 10:45 a.m. The championships will take place in Spartanburg, S.C. at Milliken Park.

The men's races will be 8,000 meters in length, while the women's races will be 5,000 meters. The teams will also be competing for a chance to represent the Southern Conference in the NCAA Championships.

"This year may be the deepest ever for the talent pool in both the Women's and Men's SoCon Cross Country Championships," said Head Coach Danny Williamson. "Both of our teams feel very good about where they are at right now by looking at what they have been able to do training wise."

The Catamounts come into the meet following a respectable performance in the Blue Ridge Open on Oct. 17. The men's squad finished with a 14th place finish out of 26 teams with freshman Josey Weaver pacing the team with a 65th place run out of 210 runners. The women's team posted a solid 9th place finish out of 26 teams thanks to senior Megan Isaacs and her 15th place finish out of 194 runners.

The next best performances were by junior Stephen Hammond (77) out of 210 runners, and senior Leah Nicholson (43) out of 194 runners.

"We would like to come away from the SoCon meet with a higher team finish than we had last season," Williamson said. "We feel that we have the ability to do this, even with the conference being the best that it has ever been from top to bottom."

After the meet the Catamounts will begin to get ready for the indoor track & field season which starts in December.