Oct. 24, 2006

BOCA RATON, FL - The Florida Atlantic University men's and women cross country teams will compete in the Sun Belt Conference Championships this weekend.

The Owls head to Little Rock after taking last week off and having swept the men's and women's team events at their last meet, the Stetson Invitational.

The women will be led by the tandem of junior Trisha Doyle and freshman Friederike Feil, who have been FAU's top two finishers in every meet in which they have competed. The duo will be seeking to lead the Owls to their first ever team championship in cross country. They will face stiff competition from Arkansas-Little Rock.

The Trojans are the defending conference champions and are led by sophomore Whitney Kerth who was last year's freshman of the year and has been named runner of the week four times this season.

The men, led by junior Earl Barlow, are likewise seeking their first cross country championship. Western Kentucky is the defending conference champion for the men.

The Hilltoppers are led by senior Cosmas Sigei. He has been the high finisher for WKU five times this season. This is FAU's first championship meet in their new conference after moving from the Atlantic Sun.

Altitude and temperature, two factors that could have hampered the Owls' performance are not a concern to head cross country coach Alex Smolka.

"The races will be run on a golf course, so it should be fairly flat," Smolka said. "The temperature should be in the 60's, so it won't be that much of a factor for us."

The Sun Belt Championships starts at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.