Oct. 13, 2005

Charlotte, N.C. - The Charlotte cross country teams will take on the nation's best this weekend at Indiana State's Pre-Nationals race in Terre Haute, Ind. Nearly all of the top 30-ranked teams in the nation descend upon Indiana State's course on Saturday, Oct. 15 for 8K men's and 6K women's races, which are run on the same course as the NCAA Championships will be later this fall.

The Charlotte men's team was assigned to the first competition of the day, the "blue" race. That 8K event begins at 11:00 a.m. Central time.

Charlotte, which is ranked 10th in the Southeast Region in the most recent poll, will face heavy competition in the national-level field. Of the 33 teams in the men's blue race, 11 are ranked in the national top 30 poll and three more were receiving votes. Seven runners per team (231 total) will contest the race.

Heading the blue field are four teams among the nation's top 12, including # 4 BYU, # 5 Stanford, #10 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and #12 Georgetown. Dartmouth, Florida State, N.C. State, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio State and Virginia are also ranked in the top 30 nationally, while Oklahoma State, Oregon and Loyola Chicago are receiving votes.

The Charlotte men's team is deep and as coach Brad Herbster has said many time this season, the top four or five runners could change at any meet. Sophomore Ryan Jank and senior Jamil Muhaimin have each led the team twice this season, while freshman Adu Dentamo has been third on the team in three of four meets so far. Dentamo has captured two Atlantic 10 Conference Rookie of the Week awards.

The Charlotte women's team was also assigned to the "blue" race, and that 6K event is scheduled for 12:20 p.m. CST. They face an equally-deep field of 36 teams, of which 11 are ranked and three are receiving votes. There will be 252 runners total on the women's side.

Headlining the blue field are five of the nation's top 10 teams, including # 3 Stanford, # 4 BYU, # 8 Notre Dame, # 9 N.C. State, and # 10 Minnesota. Butler, Columbia, Georgetown, Georgia, Northern Arizona, Virginia and Wisconsin are also top-30 ranked teams, while UCLA, Villanova and Yale were all receiving votes.

The Charlotte women's team is undeniably headlined by Cassie Ficken, who has placed in the top 15 of every race she's contested this season. She was ninth out of 310 runners at the Paul Short Run two weekends ago, and has captured three Atlantic 10 Performer of the Week awards this season. Junior Tsehaye Dagnachew has been second on the team in all four races this season, followed by A-10 Rookie of the Week awardwinner Aja Jackson.

Herbster said that this meet is truly like running at a Regional or National Championship-type meet, with all the ranked teams on both sides. In addition, the teams will get to gauge their times against the 30-plus teams in the "white" races, which run at different times on the same course and feature an equal number of nationally-ranked teams.

You can hear coach Herbster talk about the state of Charlotte cross country and preview the team's upcoming races each Wednesday afternoon through the Charlotte 49ers School Pass on Yahoo! Audio. Click here for more details on how to sign up, or click here to go to Charlotte's Yahoo! audio page.