Nov. 19, 2002

Chapel Hill, N.C. -- The University of North Carolina women's cross country team will compete in the 2002 NCAA Women's NCAA Cross Country Championship, Monday, November 25, in Terre Haute, Ind. The Tar Heels received an at-large bid from the track and field committee yesterday afternoon. UNC was one of three ACC teams, Duke and Virginia, that received one of the 13 at-large bids. Six teams will represent the ACC at the championship.

"We're very excited about getting back to the NCAA Championship," said coach Michael Whittlesey. "There are a lot of good teams and it just shows the strength of our conference and the Southeast region as six teams made it to nationals.

"We feel like our girls are very experienced at the championship being the fifth consecutive year we have qualified and are confident we can finish strongly again this year."

Junior Shalane Flanagan (Marblehead, Mass.) will try and win her first NCAA Championship. Flanagan finished fourth in 2000 and 19th in 2001. She has won all four races she has competed in this year including a three-peat at the ACC Championship (Nov. 2) and the Southeast Regional (Nov. 16).

The NCAA Championship race will begin at noon on the Gibson Course.

Women's Automatic Qualifying Teams
Northwestern University - Midwest
Villanova University - Mid-Atlantic
University of Colorado - Mountain
Notre Dame - Great Lakes
Michigan - Great Lakes
Tennessee - South
Providence - Northeast
University of Missouri - Midwest
Georgetown - Mid-Atlantic
Florida State - South
Columbia University - Northeast
BYU - Mountain
Arkansas - South Central
Texas-Austin - South Central
Wake Forest - Southeast
NC State - Southeast
Stanford - West
Arizona State - West

Women's At-large Teams
Ball State
Duke
Indiana
Marquette
Michigan State
Northern Arizona
Penn State
UCLA
North Carolina
Virginia
Washington
William & Mary
Wisconsin