CEDAR CITY, Utah - Oct. 12 - The cross country team will be traveling to Terre Haute, Ind. this week for the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet. The Thunderbirds will be competing on the national stage as they run with teams from across the country.

"My hope for the women is to see them continue improving and hopefully set the stage to really contend for the conference championship," said head coach Eric Houle. "This is such a big stage and it should help them operate under the pressure of a big crowd.

"I really think the men's team is starting to come together now," he continued. "Last weekend was a good meet for us to try to bring our top five closer together as a pack, so we're hoping to continue that process."

Sharla Manuele led the women's team to a seventeenth-place finish out of 37 teams at last season's Pre-Nationals meet, crossing the finish line in 28th place and with a time of 21:16.5. She was followed by Diana Medina (21:43.9) in 58th place and Sylvia Bedford (22:12.4) in 113th place. Manuele, Medina and Bedford set school records on this course, as well as Madalyn Jones and Whitney Curtis.

The men's team finished in 28th place out of 35 teams. Cameron Levins crossed the finish line first for the Thunderbirds, finishing in 42nd place with a time of 24:25.9. Kevin Sandall (25:11.6) and Dallas Eborn (25:54.8) followed in 106th and 166th place respectively, both times ranking in the top ten SUU times on the course.

The Thunderbirds will next compete at the Summit League Championships in Carmel, Ind. on Oct. 30.

-SUU Media Relations