Cross country's second team takes the lead

The Wildcats, currently ranked No. 5 for the men and No. 6 for the women, look to improve upon their last meet, but will not send their top five runners for either team.

"This will give some other runners an opportunity to run," cross country head coach Dave Murray said. "We had to redshirt a lot of freshmen this year and they will get their chance to run this Friday."

The UA squad will take seven runners each from the men's and women's teams to compete in the Pacific 10 Championships in Eugene, Ore., Oct. 31.

With the top five runners from each squad already penciled into the Pac-10 line-up, runners today will compete for the two remaining slots.

Murray said he thinks this race will showcase some of the talented members on the team who are normally overshadowed.

"This will give a chance to some of our other runners to fill the remaining spots for the Pac-10s," he said.

The UA teams will face tough competition from Arizona State and Northern Arizona. The NAU men's and women's teams are ranked in the top 25 and the ASU women's team is ranked No. 15.

Also slated to compete this afternoon are the No. 1-ranked men and No. 2-ranked women of Stanford, as well as teams from Southern Utah, UC Santa Barbara, New Mexico, Cal-State Northridge, UNLV and UTEP.

The women's 5,000-meter race will begin at 4:30 p.m. and the men's 8,000-meter race at 5.

Brian Wahlund can be reached via e-mail at Brian.Wahlund@wildcat.arizona.edu.