Oct. 29, 2008

Dayton's cross country teams will take to the road this weekend for the annual Atlantic 10 Championships, which will be held on Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.

The Flyers boast several top contenders in both the men's and women's competitions, as the A-10 will begin the process of crowning the first two of 21 fall champions this month at UNC Charlotte's Campus Course.

The 20th annual women's run will begin at 10:00 a.m., with the 31st annual men's race commencing shortly thereafter at 10:45 a.m.

The women's squad comes into this weekend ranked second in the conference, and will look to record its highest-ever finish at the conference championship after being picked to finish ninth in the pre-season coaches' poll. One of the surprise teams of the fall season, UD now stands to significantly improve on last season's 10th place finish.

The Flyers will be led by three-time A-10 performer of the week, Maureen Bulgrin, who has finished at the head of the pack five times this fall. After beginning the year with a time of 18:52 at the Flyer 5K on Aug. 30, Bulgrin began shaving seconds in each of the next three races, culminating with the 11th best time in program history (17:56) at the Greater Louisville Classic on Oct. 4.

Look for Liz Coorey, who finished 27th overall at last year's meet, to step up for the Flyers as well. The sophomore has finished runner-up to Bulgrin in each of the last five races after leading the squad at the Flyer 5K to open up the season.

The Flyers will also be leaning on sophomore Brigitte Sherman, senior Ellen Nienhaus, and freshman Elissa Mason to post strong times. Sherman has placed in the top five for UD in all six races thus far, while Nienhaus has scored five times. One of just two rookies, Mason has come on strong in the past four contests scoring in each and taking home A-10 Rookie of the Week honors on Oct. 13.

The men's team, on the other hand, comes into the race ranked seventh in the coaches' conference poll and will need strong times across the board to improve upon last year's sixth place finish.

Redshirt junior Mike Andersen, who finished third at the A-10 Championships in 2006, is a strong contender to win Dayton's first-ever individual title, but will have to compete with two teammates just to lead the team.

Dayton's top three runners have been Andersen and the sophomore duo of Chris and Matt Lemon all season long. While Andersen has paced the team on two occasions, Chris Lemon was named A-10 performer of the week on Sept. 29 and has also led UD in two races. Matt Lemon was the most recent team leader two weeks ago at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, and finished eighth at last year's A-10 Championships.

After the top three, the team has struggled to get consistently strong times from the rest of the line-up. Dayton will need two runners to run well to exceed its seventh place expectations.