Aug. 18, 2008

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV women's cross country team was picked to finish ninth in the Mountain West Conference, the league released today in a poll of the conference's nine head coaches.

The Rebels, which are entering their third season under head coach Tony Houchin, open the season at UC San Diego quad meet on Aug. 29 in San Diego. UNLV, which received 14 points in the preseason poll, returns three letterwinners from last year's squad, including senior Jenni Shearer.

The Colorado State women's team received six first-place votes and gathered a score of 62 to capture the top position in the women's poll. BYU collected the remaining three first-place votes and was selected to finish second with 59 points. New Mexico claimed the third spot with 49 points, followed by Utah (40 points) in fourth, and Wyoming (35 points) in fifth. Air Force finished sixth (28 points), while TCU (22 points), San Diego State (15 points) and UNLV rounded out the final three positions at seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.

Last season the Rebels finished in seventh place at the 2007 MWC Championships, the team's best finish since 2000, when they came in sixth place. Also, it was the first time since 2000 that UNLV has not come in last place at the highly-competitive conference meet.

UNLV will run in four regular-season meets, all of them in California, before competing in the 2008 MWC Championships on Nov. 1 in San Diego.