The Eastern Washington University cross country program is preparing to travel to Riverdale, Utah, for the Big Sky Conference Championships on Saturday (Feb. 27).

This year's Conference Championships, originally scheduled to take place last fall, have been moved to a winter competition and will be hosted by Weber State University at the Riverside Golf Course in Utah. The races will begin at 12:15 p.m. Pacific time with the women's 5-kilometer championship race, and the men's 8K championship race will follow at 1 p.m.

"Although we only got one race in before this and cross country itself is happening at a completely different time, it still feels like conference week," said Eastern head coach Sam Read. "The excitement, nerves, anticipation -- everything that usually comes along with the conference championships -- it is still all here.

"It's always a fun race," he continued. "The Big Sky is loaded with talent and this year is no exception. I'm predicting a very fast race Saturday."

In Utah, Eastern will face-off with the other 10 league schools. Among them are Northern Arizona, which swept the 2019 conference championships, with both the men and women taking first place. In NAU program history the men hold 29 conference titles and the women have 21.

Other top opponents include Weber State, with its men's team ranking No. 2 earlier this season in the Big Sky preseason polls, and the women ranked third. Another top opponent is Southern Utah, with the men ranked fourth in the poll and the women picked No. 2. Eastern Washington ranked eighth for the men and tenth for the women in the preseason polls.  

"The front of these races is stacked with national caliber talent," said Read. "It's a great chance for our top runners to get pulled along and see how they stack up against the best. But we can't get swept up in other's races. We will do our best if we run our race and work off each other in our packs."

The Eagles had their lone regular-season meet in Lewiston, where they took part in the Idaho Orchards Invitational. The meet included three other schools that participated alongside Eastern. The men finished third overall, and the women finished fourth overall.  

Carter Ledwith and Kaylin Sheley were the top finishers for Eastern, leading the men's and women's teams. Ledwith placed first at the invite, winning the men's race and claiming his first collegiate victory on an 8-kilometer course with the time of 25:07.2. For the women, Sheley placed 19th on the 5K course after running a time of 18:19.8.

"The meet at Idaho gave us a valuable opportunity of really remembering that racing feeling again before going into this championship race," said Read. "I think we should feel more comfortable being uncomfortable this time around; that will allow our runners to take some more risks that they didn't take in the last race."
 
The men's team competing in Utah will include Carter Ledwith, Ethan Green, Alec Kness, Jamie Christner, Drew Whited, Danny Maxwell, Lucas Robert, and Jacob Stirpe.

For the women, Kaylin Sheley, Jenni Bissell, Megan Pitzman, Anna Harrison, Maddie Drennen, Phoenix Aguilar, and Kenzie Gaines will compete.

Both Eastern teams in 2020-21 include a 12-person roster, which is comprised of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, with only one senior on the men's side.

"We have a goal to keep moving forward as a team," added Read. "A big measurement for that is conference placing; we want to keep moving up and bettering ourselves at this meet."
 
This season there will not be a regional championship meet to follow the conference championships. The next meet will be the NCAA Division I National Championship Meet. The NCAA DI Oversight Committee created a selection process for teams and individuals to qualify for the national meet.

More information can be found at the following site:
https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/selection-criteria-2020-di-cross-country-championships-approved

The NCAA Championships are scheduled to take place on March 15, in Stillwater Okla. The schedule and course information for the championships remain undetermined.