Sept. 24, 2003

Grand Valley State's women's cross country team is the lone Division II school that was invited to run in the Nike Race of Champions at the Great American Cross Country Festival in Cary, North Carolina. The Lakers will compete against 18 Division I school. GVSU is currently ranked #3 in the nation at the DII level.

Here is the list of schools that will be competing: (the ranking are according to the NCAA DI National Poll)

#1 Brigham Young University
Butler University
Campbell University
Coastal Carolina University
#16 Duke University
Florida State University
Grand Valley State (only DII school)
Liberty University
#14 North Carolina State University
#10 Northern Arizona University
Texas A & M University
University of Delaware
University of New Mexico
#9 University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina - Charlotte
University of Toledo
#28 University of Virginia
US Military Academy
#24 College of William and Mary

"This is a great opportunity for us to compete against the best teams in the nation at any level," said GVSU Head CC Coach Jerry Baltes. "BYU has won the previous two NCAA Division I Championships so we are excited to compete against the best."

"We are still not at full strength health wise but we will get a valuable experience racing on the NCAA Championship course that we will plan on racing later on in November," added Baltes.

The race will take place on Friday, September 26 at 4:15 p.m.

Grand Valley State's men's cross country team will be competing in the University Seeded Race at the Great American Cross Country Festival. The Lakers will be racing against the best teams at the DII level. GVSU is currently ranked #7 in the nation.

The following list are the school's GVSU will be competing against in the race and their DII National Ranking.

Campbell University
Coastal Carolina University
Davidson College
East Carolina University
Elon University
#7 Grand Valley State
#13 Hillsdale College
#16 Kennesaw State
Loyola College
Mars Hill College
#20 Millersville University
Milligan College
Monmouth University
Pfeiffer University
Shippensburg University
University of Maryland Baltimore
University of Massachusetts - Lowell
University of North Carolina - Greensboro
University of North Florida
#23 University of Southern Indiana
University of Toledo
The Virginia Military Institute

"This will be a great opportunity for our men to match up against some of the top level DII teams in the nation," said Baltes. "We will get to see where we stand fitness wise and competively against some of these opponents."

"Our men are very eager to race and continue to get better. Even though we are very young we have a very bright future ahead of us," Baltes continued. "It is obviously our goal to return to North Carolina and race at the NCAA Championship in November."

The men's race will take place on Friday, Sept. 26 at 3:40 p.m.

Click on the link below to find out information and results of the races:
Great American Cross Country Festival