St. Lawrence University's men's and women's cross country teams will both be competing at the NCAA Division III Championship for the ninth consecutive season on Saturday at Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

Both teams earned one of 16 at-large bids to the national championship meet, as announced by the NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Committee on Sunday afternoon.

St. Lawrence is one of just five programs to have both the men's and women's teams qualify for the national championship meet for the last nine years. SUNY Geneseo, Williams, Calvin and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps are the others.

"We are thrilled to be making our ninth straight trip to the NCAA Championship," said head men's cross country coach John Newman '94. "Being sixth at regionals yesterday certainly didn't help our cause but we performed very well versus many of the top teams from four of the other regions at Paul Short and at the Border Battle. I think this speaks to the strength of the Atlantic region. We are definitely excited to represent St. Lawrence and the Scarlet and Brown once again on the national stage and extend the season one more week. I couldn't be happier for the guys"

Both teams finished sixth at yesterday's Atlantic Regional held at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Both have also struggled with injuries, which makes the continuation of the run even more impressive. The women's team was forced to finish the season without senior captain Lisa Grohn, who was at the front of the pack for the first month of the season the Saints, winning two individual titles and finishing in the top-five in all four of the races she ran.

"We're thrilled to be returning to nationals for the ninth year in a row," said first-year head women's cross country coach Kate Curran, who was an assistant for the program for the previous eight years. "The season hasn't gone exactly as we planned but our team stepped up to the challenge and we can't wait to represent St. Lawrence on the national stage again."

Last year, St. Lawrence was 25th in the women's race, while the men finished 15th.

The men's eight-kilometer championship will be held at 11 a.m., and the gun will go off for the women's 6K championship at noon. Coverage of the races will be live streamed at www.NCAA.com.