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CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Charlotte men’s and women’s cross country team travels to the campus of Indiana State University for the NCAA Pre-Nationals Meet in Terre Haute, Ind., this weekend. The meet will feature 19 nationally-ranked squads for both the men’s and women’s race, while eight of the men's top ten teams will compete and seven of the women’s top ten teams will run in their respective race. 

The men will be competing in the Men’s Blue 8000M Race at 11 a.m. and the Niner women will be in the Women’s White 6000M Race set to begin at 12:55 p.m.  The 70 and 74 team fields are split between two races with regionally and nationally ranked teams spread evenly in either the Blue or White race respectively.  This meet also marks for the first time this season that the women’s team will be running the 6k distance which will add just over a half mile to their normally 3.1mile race.

“With some of the top teams in the nation competing in the Pre-Nationals it will pull our athletes to run even faster and put up some of their best performances this year,” stated cross country coach Ed Schlichter. “That will be important especially for some our runners that are trying to make it to the NCAA Championships later in the year.”

The race will give Charlotte a chance to gain ground in the NCAA Division I Cross Country Southeast Regional Rankings with seven women’s Southeast ranked teams competing and eight men’s teams in the meet. Both of the 49ers cross country teams are ranked in the region with the women taking 11th in the poll while the men sit as the 12th team.

“This is the biggest meet for us thus far in the season because we are getting to see some teams that we don’t usually compete against throughout the season,” said Schlichter. “The race will show us how far we can move up the ladder in the region and potentially nationally as well as showing us how good we are right now.”

The ISU course is also the site for the 2009 NCAA Championship and has hosted several NCAA Championships, including last year, since the courses’ opening.

“The course is extremely fan friendly as it is an open rolling grass course that mimics a golf course fairway making it an extremely fast course,” stated Schlichter. “The course for the men has been the same for several years, while the women’s 6k course has changed several times over the years. Our runners can expect wide running areas without a lot of trees and a little bit of headwind.”

Besides Charlotte, two other Atlantic 10 teams will compete in the meet on Saturday with both of Dayton’s teams running as well as the A-10 men’s defending champion, UMASS. Both Dayton and UMASS will not compete against Charlotte in the meet, but will run in the opposite races.

In Charlotte’s last meet both the men and women took home titles by claiming the Charlotte Invitational in a field of almost 250 runners per race. Adu Dentamo took home the men’s 8k individual title in 23:13.7, while Chase Eckard and Dakota Lowery claimed top ten honors. Amanda Goetschius was the top women’s runner with her second place finish in the women’s 5k and was followed by Keara Thomas in 4th place and Maria Ruiz in 12th.

“We will be looking to capitalize on some really good training from the last two weeks and all of our runners are looking prime and ready to run their best times.”

The runners that will not compete in the NCAA Pre-Nationals will travel to Spartanburg, S.C. for the USC Upstate Invite. Twelve Charlotte runners will compete at USC Upstate on Saturday with the women's 5k race beginning at 10 a.m. and the men's 8k race set to begin at 10:30.

Earlier in the year, Charlotte ran at the USC Upstate Eye Opener on Upstate’s campus. The men and women both took 4th place in the season-opening race.