CROSS COUNTRY CHASES AUTOMATIC BIDS

BOULDER, Colo. - The University of Colorado's third ranked women's and fourth ranked men's cross country teams will join every altitude program in the country when they compete for the right to advance to this year's national championship when they run in the NCAA Mountain Region Cross Country Championships on the Collindale Golf Course in Fort Collins Saturday.

At stake in Saturday's two races are a pair of automatic bids to the NCAA Championships as the top-two finishing teams in each race will advance, plus the top four, top-25 finishing individuals in each race, not affiliated with one of those teams. The following Monday, Nov. 15, additional teams from all nine regions will advance as at-large selections.

The Colorado men have won 10 of the last 12 qualifying races, and 14 overall while the Buff women have won titles in 1986, '87, '94, '96 and 2000, but have been the bridesmaid to BYU five of the last seven seasons. Individually, it has been more than a decade since a Buff on the men's roster relinquished the individual crown. Scott Larson finished fourth in 1993 and since the men have claimed 10 straight. The CU women have own four individual titles, including three straight from 1999-01 when Kara Grgas-Wheeler won back-to-back titles in 1999 and '00, and Jodie Hughes won in '01. Brooke Baughman won CU's first in 1992.

A year ago in Riverdale, Utah, the Buffs went 1-2 with the men taking their respective title behind Dathan Ritzenhein's win, while the women finished second behind Renee Metivier's team-high ninth place finish.

Both Colorado teams are unbeaten in 2004 entering Saturday's race. The CU women will put a veteran squad on the course Saturday in Big 12 Champion Renee Metivier, Sara Slattery (who last ran this race in '02 and finished fourth), Christine Bolf (finished eighth a year ago), Natalie Florence (finished a career best ninth in '02), freshmen Liza Pasciuto and Amber Smith and Laura Zeigle (48th in '03) on the line Saturday. Jackie Zeigle will be the team's alternate.

Bret Schoolmeester finished a career best ninth in this race last year while senior Jon Severy will be running his fourth qualifier Saturday. He finished a career best 31st as a redshirt freshman in '01 and 33rd as a junior a year ago in Riverdale, Utah. Classmate Jared Scott finished 27th in 2003. More than half of the men's team will be running the qualifying race for the first time including redshirt freshman Stephen Pifer, Bradley Harkrader, James Strang and Brent Vaughn, who sidelined in this race a year ago due to a case of food poisoning.