Nov. 7, 2007

LOGAN, Utah - Utah State's men's and women's cross country teams compete in the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships on Saturday, Nov, 10 hosted by Weber State University in Riverdale, Utah.

"We are ready to go," said Utah State head coach Gregg Gensel. "I always say that we can't worry about the other teams, we just have to control what we do."

Gensel was named the men's cross country WAC Coach of the Year for the second year in row.

The men's 10k race begins at 11 a.m., while the women's 6k race will start at 12:15 p.m. at the Schneiter's Riverside Golf Course in Riverdale, Utah.

Currently the Aggie men are ranked seventh in the Mountain Region. Northern Arizona is ranked at the top, followed by UTEP, Colorado, BYU and New Mexico rounding out the top five.

The Aggie women are ranked 10th in the Mountain Region. Colorado State holds the top spot in the rankings followed by Colorado, BYU, Northern Arizona and Texas Tech in the top five.

The men are coming off a first place finish at the WAC Championships where eight members of the team finished in the top 15. Junior Seth Wold led his team by not only placing first in the race, but by also recording the fastest 8k time in WAC history with a time of 23:16. Wold was named WAC Cross Country Athlete of the Year. Fellow Aggie Steve Strickland finished third with a time of 23:34 followed by teammate Chio Lopez with a time of 23:39. Lopez was also named WAC Freshman of the Year.

The women placed third at the WAC Championships where seniors Amy Egan and Stacie Dorius, and freshman Alicia Holt, were all named second-team all-WAC. Egan finished 11th overall with a time of 17:34 followed closely behind by Dorius who placed 12th with a time of 17:35.

Last year at regionals the women's team placed ninth out of 17 schools and the men placed 10th out of 15 schools. Wold placed 29th overall in the 10k-race with a time of 31:52. Dorius placed 34th for the women in the 6k-race with a time of 22:10.

The top two teams at each regional meet automatically qualify for nationals and the first four individuals not on a qualifying team also earn an automatic berth.

-USU-