Nov. 9, 2006

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy women's cross country team will head to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championship on West Branch Cross Country Course in Lock Haven, Pa., on Saturday at 11 a.m.

The top-two teams and top-three runners not attached to those two teams this weekend earn automatic qualification into the NCAA Championship, which will be held at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 20. In addition to the automatic qualifiers, some teams will receive at-large bids to the national championship, as well as two at-large runners not affiliated with one of the advancing teams.

Navy jumped up to eighth in the Mid-Atlantic region rankings last week following its second-place performance at the Patriot League Championship on Oct. 28. The Midshipmen had stood at No. 9 during each of the previous-three poll releases. Georgetown heads into the weekend as the top-ranked team in the region and 15th in the country, followed by No. 20 Princeton and LaSalle, who is receiving votes.

"To advance to the NCAA Championship, it's very tough," stated Navy head coach Karen Boyle. "Since we have more than two teams in the national rankings, hopefully our region will get an at-large team selection which allows the individual slots to go a bit higher. We are looking to have a strong race from all seven of our runners and finish ahead of our eighth-place seed."

The Midshipmen have raced the West Branch Cross Country Course on one previous occasion, placing 11th out of 26 schools during the 2003 NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championship. At last year's regional championship, Navy raced to a 10th-place finish on Lehigh's Goodman Campus Course.

Delivering at the front of Navy's corps of low-scoring runners all season have been seniors Justine Whipple (Duxbury, Mass.) and Emily Castro (Centennial, Colo.). Whipple earned First-Team All-Patriot League honors for the second-straight year with her third-place finish at the league championship two weeks ago. She has registered the team's fastest time in each of her last-11 races, dating to the start of the 2005 season. The product of Duxbury, Mass., has landed among the top-15 runners at all five meets this year, including two first-place performances.

Castro etched her name on the First-Team All-Patriot League list for the third time in her career two weeks ago, placing fifth among a field of more than 80 runners. She owns five top-15 performances, four of which have been within the five-fastest marks. The product of Centennial, Colo., boasted the team's best time in its last trip to Lock Haven's course, where she placed 35th overall as a freshman.

"Justine and Emily have both been running very well and are hoping to place well," Boyle said. "We're really going to have to be 'on' to land one of our own or more into the national championship. We're ready to give it a good shot."

Navy will turn to an experienced group of runners that aims to maintain a low team score for the Mids on Saturday. Junior Kyleigh Millhouse (Boiling Springs, Pa.) has scored in all six of the team's meet this year, placing among the top-15 on three occasions. Seniors Allison Barlow (Orange Park, Fla.), Juliann Jordan (Kanehoe, Hawai'i) and Susan Richardson (Louisville, Colo.) all have either scored or served as a displacing scorer in several races this season. Sophomore Maureen Dooley (Durham, Conn.) has also recorded one of Navy's seven-fastest times in all six meets in 2006.

"Kyleigh, Allison, Juliann, Susan and Maureen have all run well as the rest of the top seven," said Boyle. "If they can run stronger in pairs this week than in the Patriot League meet, we'll score much stronger as a team. This is it for the seniors--they'll all put everything out there this meet."