Sept. 26, 2008

LAS VEGAS - UNLV women's cross country team is headed back to California to run in the UC Riverside Invitational which will take place Saturday morning.

The Rebels are going to face off with Mountain West Conference opponents BYU and San Diego State, which are part of close to 400 runners and roughly 25 teams competing. The meet is slated to begin at 7:30 a.m. (PT) at the UCR Agricultural Operations Course in Riverside, Calif.

The Rebels are taking the entire team down to Riverside this weekend, senior Jenni Shearer and sophomore Ashley Silva competed in the invite last season. Shearer finished with a time of 18:43, and Silva with a time of 19:44. This will be the first trip to UC Riverside for seniors Isabelle Stoate and Bailey Kuestermeyer, and freshmen Amber Throop, Brett Zorich and Erin Murphy.

"This is a meet where we traditionally run well and I'm looking for the team to improve on last year's performance," said head coach Tony Houchin. "We've been seeing a lot of improvement throughout the year and I think this meet is going to show that we're a much better team than in years past."

This is the Rebels third trip to California this season and they have had success individually and as a team each trip. Shearer placed second at the UCSD meet, while UNLV finished third overall in the first trip to California.