BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech's cross country teams will compete in the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships hosted by East Carolina University on Saturday, November 13.

The women's six kilometer race will start at 11 a.m. and the men begin their 10k run at 12:15 p.m. Both races will be held at Lake Kristi in Greenville, N.C.

"Our goals for the regional championships are to finish in top-ten as a team on both sides and have three women finish in the top-30 and five men place in the top-60," said head coach Ben Thomas.

"Also we would like to have a couple of runners qualify for the NCAA Championships. Jessica Fanning (Fr., Charlottesville, Va.) has been running well and has a legitimate shot of qualifying. Jessica Morris (Sr., Coatesville, Pa.) has been one place away from qualifying before and David Atkiss (Sr., Hatfield, Pa.) will go after it for sure," stated Thomas.

Forty-four teams from 11 NCAA Division I conferences in the southeast region compete for two team and several individual berths to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Monday, November 22 in Terre Haute, Ind.

Front-runners at this year's regionals include the 2004 ACC winners, No. 5 Duke women and No. 11 N.C. State. Also from the ACC, the No. 8 North Carolina women, tenth-ranked N.C. State women's team and the No. 21 Wake Forest women's squad. All rankings are received from this week's MONDO men's national poll and the FinishLynx women's national poll.

"Virginia Tech is in a great region. The teams are very fast and competitive. I believe our runners will go out and compete to the best of their ability and we will be happy with the outcome. We are just excited by the challenge ahead," concluded Thomas.