Oct. 10, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- The Samford cross country team will run in the 26th annual Furman Invitational on Saturday morning on the Furman University Golf Course. The meet with be the Bulldogs' first real look at conference competition as they sit just three out from the Southern Conference Cross Country Championship which will be held on Nov. 1.

"I think this weekend will be a different kind of test for us," Samford head coach Rod Tiffin said. "We are resting some of our runners this weekend so it will allow for some of the other guys and girls to step up. We are looking for some people that want to lift their level of competition and help out there teammates. The competition will be interesting with so many SoCon teams at the meet. We are not looking to make any predictions. We would like to see what the rest of the conference has to offer and then we will match up in two weeks when we are back at full strength."

Saturday's events will kick off with the Furman Corporate Shield Cross Country 5K at 8:30 a.m., followed by the collegiate men's 8K at 9:30, the collegiate women's 5K at 10:00, the JV girls at 11:10, the JV boys 5K at 11:50, the varsity girls 5K at 12:30 and conclude with the varsity boys 5K at 1:00. All races will be held on the cross country course of the Furman Golf Club, which has hosted two NCAA Division I Cross Country championships.

There will be 19 men's and women's college teams competing in the meet including Benedict College, Centre College, Claflin, College of Charleston, Erskine, Furman, Marshall, North Georgia, North Greenville, Paine College, Samford, Spartanburg Methodist, Tennessee Tech, University of North Florida, USC Aiken, USC Upstate, Warren Wilson and Wofford.

The Bulldogs are the only regionally ranked team in Division I that will be competing this weekend. The Samford women are currently ranked 12th in the South region. Running for the Bulldog women this weekend will be senior Katie Almand, juniors Jessica Van Ausdall and Lauren Pilcher, sophomore Hillary Neal and freshmen Brittney Harrison, Alli Keithan, Cori Christenson, Andrea Seccafien and Deanna Zidar.

The men will be led by current Southern Conference Men's Runner of the Week Cameron Bean. He will be joined by fellow seniors Bo Brawner and Michael Schwartz, juniors Patrick Ollinger, Will Denton, Blaise Carie and Chas Keithan, sophomore Scott Cope and freshmen George Mardre and Justin Rogers.

A full recap and results will be available on www.samfordsports.com upon the completion of the meet.