Oct. 12, 2001

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The men's and women's cross country teams are headed to Greenville, SC to compete in the NCAA Pre-National/29th Annual Furman (University) Invitational. The meet has been held for several years, but the 2001 Pre-National meet is different from past seasons.

"This is the first year they've split the divisions up," head coach Jared Wilmes said. "No one really knows what to expect. What you're going to have are two great races for the men and two great races for the women."

The teams accepted into the NCAA Pre-Meet races were announced on Thursday and both the Missouri men and women were selected to compete in one of the Pre-Meet races. The women's team will be running with 36 other teams in the Purple 6K at 10:45 a.m. Other squads running in the race include No. 1 Colorado, No. 4 Arizona State, No. 8 North Carolina, No. 9 Arizona, No. 11 Georgetown, No. 13 Michigan State, No. 17 Boston U, No. 18 UCLA, No. 20 Cornell and No. 21 Northern Arizona. Missouri did not receive votes in the last women's poll but is ranked second in the region behind Minnesota.

The Tiger men will run in the Black 8K, which starts at 11:55 a.m. and is also composed of 37 teams. Ranked teams in the Black race are No. 2 Stanford, No. 8 Northern Arizona, No. 9 NC State, No. 11 Colorado State, No. 16 Michigan State, No. 17 BYU, No. 18 Oregon, No. 21 Alabama and No. 22 Georgetown.

Wilmes said both the men's and women's teams have had excellent practices the past week leading up to this weekend. The Pre-National meet will not only give the Tigers a chance to run against great competition but it will also give the runners a feel for what the the NCAA national championship meet will be like.

"It's a great chance for our kids to see where the national meet will be run and to be on the course," Wilmes said.

Results of the meet will be posted at www.mutigers.com Saturday evening.