On Saturday, the 22nd-ranked men's and 17th-ranked women's ASU cross country teams get down to serious business after a week off from competition as they travel to Palo Alto, Calif. All their practice and consistent finishes from this season will help them out as they participate in the NCAA West Region Championships.
The tournament will be hosted by Stanford. At the competition there will be 29 men's teams present. Some of the schools included are ASU, UA, California, Pepperdine, Oregon, San Diego State, Stanford, UCLA, Washington and Washington State. On the women's side there will be 33 schools. Some of the colleges participating are ASU, UA, California, Hawaii, Oregon, San Diego State, Stanford, USC, UCLA and UNLV.
At the 2001 NCAA West Region Championships held in Tucson last year, ASU had an impressive outing with the men finishing in fourth and the women finishing in third place, one spot short of qualifying for the next round. Both teams, however, still made the NCAA tournament by being invited as an at-large selection.
At last year's event, since-graduated Lisa Aguilera finished third in the competition with a time of 20:54.5. Cody Sohn, then a junior, was the next Sun Devil finisher at 33rd and is still with the program.
For the men, senior Fasil Bizuneh finished the men's race in the fourth spot with a time of 30:59.1. He was the only one to finish in the top 10.
While in Palo Alto this weekend, the teams will look to finish within the top two spots in order to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships held on Nov. 25 in Terre Haute, Ind., hosted by Indiana State. However, if they do not finish in one of the top two spots, the teams can still be invited as an at-large team. There will be 13 total teams selected as at-large participants.
Reach the reporter at katie.crane@asu.edu.
