The Emory University men's and women's cross country teams close out the 2009 season on Saturday when they compete at the NCAA Championships.   This year's championships will be hosted by Baldwin-Wallace College and held at the Highland Park Golf Course in Cleveland, Ohio.  The women's 6K race begins at 11:00 a.m., and will be followed by the men's 8K competition at noon.

Each championship race will include 32 teams, with seven runners per squad, and 56 individuals from additional schools.  The 32 squads in each race include 16 teams, two from eight regions, who automatically qualified following their finishes at the regional championships.  In addition, the NCAA national committee selected 16 at-large teams from among the top five teams in each regional meet.  The top seven individual competitors in each regional race, not associated with a qualifying team, also earned a place in the championship field.

The Emory men's team, ranked 13^th nationally, earned its spot at nationals after coming in first out of 24 teams at the South/Southeast Regional in Greensboro, NC.  The Eagles' top five finishers all recorded top-20 overall efforts led by seniors Charlie Meade (Wellesley, MA) and Tommy Fyffe (Cincinnati, OH), who came in third and fourth, respectively, in the 174-runner field.  All five of the team's scorers earned all-region honors including senior Alex Robin (Evanston, IL), who crossed the finish line in the No. 6 position, senior Greg Decker (Rockville, MD), who recorded an eighth-place performance, and classmate Paul Winterhalter (Ardomore, PA). This year's trip to the NCAAs is the program's ninth in the last 11 years.  The Eagles finished 18^th at the 2008 championships.

The Emory's women's side, holders of the No. 35 national ranking, finished second in the 27-team field at the Regional Championships.  Sophomore Tess Gallegos (Kennesaw, GA) and junior Natalie Fenn (Evanston, IL) were the squad's top two runners with ninth- and 10^th-place showings out of 189 contestants.  Senior Rebecca Flink (Loudonville, NY) earned all-region honors after posting a 23^rd-place effort as did freshman Calley Edwards (Portland, OR) after coming in 25^th.   Rounding out the team's scoring and also landing all-region kudos was junior Jenny Feinberg.  The Emory women's program has now qualified for nationals in 18 of the past 19 seasons.  Last year the Eagles finished in 24^th place.


NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships Web Site