Nov. 16, 2008

It was officially announced on Sunday that the University of Dayton will be represented by both Chris Lemon and Matt Lemon at the 2008 NCAA Cross Country Championships. For UD, this will be the first time any cross country runner has ever competed at the national meet.

The Lemon brothers should be familiar with the course, having participated in the NCAA Pre-National Meet on Oct. 18 at Indiana State.

Chris earned his automatic individual bid after finishing third overall at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships this past Saturday. Matt, who placed 14th at the meet, had to wait for the official announcement to see if he would be one of the top four individual runners selected from the region.

After Wisconsin and Michigan earned the automatic bids from the region as the top finishers, Butler and Notre Dame were tabbed by the NCAA on Sunday as at-large teams.

Once all the runners from those teams were cleared, Matt emerged as the final at-large runner from the region. The other two qualifying athletes were Miami's Pat Sovacool and Indiana State's Scott Keeney.

Aside from making mere UD history, the Dayton duo will be gunning for All-American status (an honor conferred on the top 40 finishers) at the meet in Terra Haute, Ind. next Monday at 10 a.m.