Nov. 9, 2007

WACO, Texas -

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The Baylor cross country teams travel to Fayetteville, Ark. to compete in the second of three championship races at the 2007 NCAA South Central Regional Saturday, Nov. 10, at the Razorback Cross Country Course at Agri Park. The men will compete in a 10,000-meter race at 10 a.m., while the women's race is scheduled for 6,000 meters to follow at 11:15 a.m.

Lauren Hagans and Nichole Jones lead the way for Baylor, leading the Lady Bears as the top finishers in each meet this season. Hagans took 10th place overall at the Big 12 Championships to earn her second-career all-conference honor. Jones earned individual medalist honors at the Baylor Twilight Invitational and the BYU Autumn Classic. Jones, Hagans and Lyndsy Bedell have scored points for the Lady Bears in each competition. Bedell was the second finisher for the Bears at the Notre Dame Invitational.

"We are as ready as we have been all year," said head coach Todd Harbour. "We have had some great workouts in the past two weeks and everyone is getting healthier. Our top five runners have looked really good, now we just need a couple of other ladies to step up and run well."

The Baylor women enter the meet receiving votes in the USTFCCCA Division I Women's Cross Country Poll. The Lady Bears have been ranked as high as 22nd-nationally this season. Baylor is ranked third in the South Central Region. Last season the Lady Bears placed second at the South Central Regional, while four Baylor runners earned all-region honors.

"We need one of the two automatic bids to the NCAAs," said Harbour. "We aren't in a very good position for an at-large bid, so we need to just take care of business. We have geared our whole season to be running well at the end."

On the men's side, Jacob Jones and Robbie Knorr lead the young Bears into the conference championship. Jones has been Baylor's top finisher in two meets, including an 11th-place overall finish at the Baylor Twilight Invitational. Knorr, a freshman from Livermore, Calif., was Baylor's top finisher on three occasions, with a third-place finish at the North Texas Invitational to lead the Bears to the team championship. Knorr placed 34th overall to lead Baylor at the Stanford Invitational in his first-ever 8K race.

"On the men's side, we just want to run better than we did at the Big 12 Championships," said Harbour. "We have a very young team, but they have run this course before at the Chile Pepper Festival, so hopefully that will give us an advantage."

The men's team is currently ranked ninth in the South Central Region and has been ranked as high as fifth in the regional rankings according to the USTFCCCA.

Baylor finished fifth at the NCAA South Central Regional last season, with Bo Price earning all-region honors.

The 2007 NCAA Cross Country Championships will be hosted by Indiana State University on Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind.