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WACO, Texas - Following its second-place finish at the regional meet, the Baylor women's cross country team will be one of 31 squads running at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind.

"This is a very determined group," head coach Todd Harbour said. "It was a big goal to get back to the NCAA meet. We're happy to be back, but it's not good enough just to go up there. We want to do some good once we get there."

The women's 6,000-meter race will be the first event of the day at 11 a.m. CT at the LaVern Gibson Course.

The Baylor women actually fell from No. 21 to No. 28 in the USTFCCCA coaches poll, after the second-place regional finish. The Lady Bears had risen to the season-high point of No. 21 after a third-place finish at the Big 12 Championships.

Baylor's squad now features four All-Region performers in seniors Rachel Johnson and Mariah Kelly and sophomores Alex Davis and Maggie Montoya. Freshman Ann-Marie Dunlap was BU's fifth runner at the regional meet. Sophomores Peyton Thomas and Madie Zimmerman finished sixth and seventh, respectively for the Lady Bears last week. Bree Schrader is traveling with the group as an alternate.

Johnson has finished no lower than third overall in any of her four races this year. She was second in the regional meet and was third at the Big 12 Championships. Davis has been a scoring runner in all six of her races this fall. Kelly, Montoya and Dunlap can all make the same boast.

"I think we're in as good a shape as anybody," Harbour said. "We're running faster every weekend. If we average under 21:00, we'll be in good shape. We're rounding into really good form right now."

The Lady Bears ran on the LaVern Gibson course earlier this year, placing seventh as a team at the Pre-National Invitational. Johnson won the event in a time of 20:21.1. BU's other scoring runners at that event were Davis (22nd, 21:13.7), Montoya (45th, 21:30.7), Kelly (94th, 22:01.6) and Dunlap (140th, 22:19.7).

Johnson has had experience at the national meet, going as an individual in 2013. She finished 107th in a time of 21:21.3.

Baylor's last team trip to the NCAA meet was in 2009 and that was the seventh year in a row that BU had advanced to the national meet. Overall on Saturday, BU will be making its 15th NCAA team appearance. The Lady Bears were 28th in 2009, but their highest ever finish was eighth in 1998.

The national field is made up of 18 squads that automatically qualified for the event by placing first or second at one of nine regionals around the country. Thirteen other teams earned at-large berths, while 38 individuals also garnered a spot by being a top runner not on an advancing team.

Each of the 31 teams will be running their top seven runners, but as in other races this fall, only the top five times from those seven runners will count towards the team score.

A live web stream and live results of the race will be available via NCAA.com.

Complete results and a recap of the meet will be available on BaylorBears.com following the event.

To stay current on all things Baylor cross country, follow the team on Twitter: @BaylorTrack.