Food Lion SAC Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championship to be decided Saturday

The 2006 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference men's and women's cross country championship takes place Saturday at Black Mountain Recreation Park in Black Mountain, N.C.

The men's championship race will start at 9 a.m., with the women's championship race starting at 10:15 a.m.

The Mars Hill College men are the defending champions and are the top-ranked team in the Southeast Region. Mars Hill's Jon Stoehr has been one of the top runners in the conference this year, earning SAC Men's Runner of the Week three times this season.

Wingate, Lincoln Memorial and Lenoir-Rhyne are also some of the top men's teams in the Southeast Region. Lincoln Memorial will be competing in its first SAC championship event since becoming a conference member in July.

Wingate is led by Jayce Watson, a two-time Runner of the Week, who is coming off a first-place finish in the Erskine Invitational.

Other top men's runners include Lenoir-Rhyne's Brad Popple and Presbyterian's Matthew Elliott.

In the women's race, Carson-Newman is the defending champion and one of five SAC teams ranked in the top 10 in the Southeast Region in the most recent poll. Carson-Newman is led by sophomore Aubrey Morris, who won the Belmont Abbey Invitational earlier this year and was the SAC Freshman Runner of the Year last year.

Mars Hill is led by Kate Prichard, who finished third in the Queens University Invitational early in the season.

Wingate also is a strong contender for the championship. The Bulldogs are led by Amber Hines, a three-time Runner of the Week honoree.

The addition of Lincoln Memorial adds another strong team to the field. In five races this fall, the Lady Railsplitter cross country team has finished no lower then fifth place with a first and a second place finish in their last two meets.

Directions to the Black Mountain Recreation Park can be found here.

Download a printable pdf file of the directions here