Oct. 26, 2006

PHILADELPHIA - The first two of 21 Atlantic 10 team champions will be crowned on Saturday, October 28 with the running of the 2006 Atlantic 10 Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, PA.

The 18th annual Women's Cross Country Championship will begin at 10:00am. La Salle defended its title last year as it outdistanced runner-up Charlotte, 40-103. La Salle senior Rachel Papin, the individual champion of the 2004 and 2005 Championships, is vying to become the first runner in league history to win three titles at the Atlantic 10 Women's Championship. The only male harrier to win three individual crowns is former West Virginia standout Bob Donker, who did so from 1991-93. Papin's winning time of 17:43.0 at last year's meet marked the sixth-fastest time in Championship history. The last A-10 team to win three consecutive women's titles was Massachusetts, which claimed five straight crowns from 1995-99.

For Saint Joseph's, coach Kevin Quinn will look to senior Suzie McHenry and sophomore Andrea Florida to lead the Hawks into contention for the conference title. Florida earned All-Atlantic 10 honors last season with her 14th-place finish, while McHenry just missed being named All-Conference, placing 19th. Also expected to run for the Hawks are seniors Maddie Bell, Rebecca Powell, and Renee Spangler, as well as sophomores Amy Rhein and Juli Stensland.

The 29th annual Men's Cross Country Championship will begin at 10:45am on Schenley Park's 8,000-meter course. Duquesne won its first-ever title last season as it edged runner-up La Salle, 44-55, to snap the Explorers' string of five consecutive titles (1999-04). Sean Quigley, the 2005 individual champion, looks to lead La Salle to its sixth-ever Championship, which would be the second-highest total behind only Penn State, which won seven A-10 Championships. Challenging Quigley for the individual crown will be Dayton sophomore Mike Andersen, who garnered Most Outstanding Rookie honors at last year's Championship after finishing ninth overall.

Leading the charge for coach Mike Glavin's Hawks will be graduate student Mike DiDio, who comes into the championships off of his first-place individual finish at the Lafayette Invitational. DiDio and senior co-captains Shawn Duffy and Teddy Meyers hope to lead the Hawks to their first cross country championship in six years. Meyers and junior William Rowland earned All-Atlantic 10 honors at the 2005 Championships, and will look to repeat this feat in 2006. Freshman Jonathan Sclafani is also expected to contribute in his first conference championship meet.

Saint Joseph's has won five Atlantic 10 cross country titles. The women took home top honors in 1993, while the men were crowned champions in 1992 and 1998. In 2000, the Hawks pulled off a sweep, winning both the men's and women's championships. That marked just the fifth time in conference history that that feat had been achieved.