Nov. 12, 2004

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The UNLV women's cross country team will run in the NCAA West Region meet held on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Woodward Park in Fresno, Calif.

UNLV will be running in a field of 34 teams, including four schools ranked in the top-25 in the country. Defending national champion Stanford, the No. 1 ranked team in the country, will defend its West Region crown. No. 7 Arizona State, No. 17 UC Santa Barbara and No. 25 Washington will also be running in the meet.

San Diego State will join UNLV as the only two teams representing the Mountain West Conference at the meet. The other six schools in the conference will be running at the Mountain Region meet, including MWC-champion BYU.

Senior distance runner Michele Suszek, who took 18th at this year's MWC Championships, leads the Rebel squad. She finished 66th at the West Region meet last year. Suszek is joined by Erin Hammond, Katie Hughes, Sarah Loughlin, Colleen O'Brien, Ashley Pierce, Leta Rose and Samantha Serrano.

The women's 6k race starts at 11:00 a.m. (PST) and the men's race follows at noon. Teams and individuals will be running for a spot at the NCAA Championships, held Nov. 11 in Terre Haute, Ind.