The Emory University men's and women's cross country team winds up the 2013 season on Saturday (Nov. 23) when they compete at the NCAA D-III Championships. The women's 6k event begins at 11:00 a.m. (EST) followed by the men's finale at 12:30 p.m. Serving as the host for this year's Championships is Hanover College (IN).
Each championship race will include 32 teams, with seven runners per squad, and 56 individuals from additional schools. The 32 teams in each race include 16 squads, two from each of eight regions, which automatically qualify in regional events. Also, 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.
Both Emory teams earned automatic bids to this season's nationals by virtue of their second-place finishes at the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Championships last weekend in Newport News, Virgina. The men's side finished with 91 points, trailing only Bridgewater's No. 1 mark of 74 points, and was paced by senior Eddie Mulder who clocked an 8k time of 25:17, good for seventh in the 174-runner field. The women's side had three of the top 13 runners out of 193 entries en route to registering 76 points, second to Trinity's 36 points. Junior Tamara Surtees was the first Eagle to cross the finish line with a 6k time of 22:37 while senior Emily Caesar (22:38) and junior Marissa Gogniat (22:59) were eighth and 13th, respectively.
This year's appearance at the Championships is the Emory women's ninth straight and 22nd in the past 23 seasons. The men will be running at nationals for the first time since 2009.
In 2012, North Central College (Ill.) scored 167 points to earn its third men's team championship in four years while Johns Hopkins claimed the women's crown with 158 points.
NCAA.com will webcast both the women's and men's races. For more information on the video stream, go to: http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2013/11/23
For more information on the D-III Cross Country Championships, go to: http://www.hanover.edu/athletics/crosscountry/championships