The Emory University men's and women's country teams return to action on Saturday (Nov. 1) when they compete in the 28^th Annual University Athletic Association Cross Country Championships.  The competition will be held at Forest Park in St. Louis, Mo.  The men's 8K race begins at 11:30 am (CDT), and will be followed by the women's 6k competition at 12:15 pm.

Both races will feature some of the top talent in the Division III ranks with four men’s and five women’s programs garnering recognition in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Top 35 Poll.  On the women’s side, the Eagles hold down the No. 30 spot nationally while other ranked programs include No. 8 Washington University, No. 16 and defending champ Chicago, No. 17 Case Western Reserve and No. 25 New York University.   Senior Tamara Surtees has been the Eagles’ top performer in their last four meets and is coming off a 12^th-place finish out of 341 runners at Oberlin College’s Inter-Regional Rumble on Oct. 18.  Surtees has claimed Second Team All-UAA honors the past two seasons.  Emory will be aiming to improve upon last year’s seventh-place finish.

Three UAA men’s teams are in the top 30, No. 13 and four-time defending conference champ Wash U, No. 27 Chicago and No. 28 NYU.  The other ranked team hitting the course on Saturday is No. 31 Carnegie Mellon.  Senior Alex Fleischhacker and junior Lukas Mees have ranked as the team’s top runner in two meets each while senior Tyler Cooke topped the pack in the squad’s last outing, crossing the finish line in 41^st position out of 278 entries at the Inter-Regional Rumble.  Sophomore Grant Murphy has made his presence felt as well this year, scoring for the Eagles in all five competitions this fall. Emory finished fifth in last season’s UAA Championships.