RELEASE DATE: 10/27/05

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mounties Women Expect Record Setting Finish at PSAC Cross Country Championship Saturday – Charity Learn, Rachel Hall and Chris Cummings among the Pre Championship Favorites

 Mansfield – Mansfield University head cross country coach Mike Rohl has waited for this day since he first came to Mansfield five years ago.

 This day being this upcoming Saturday when his Mountaineer women have high expectations of finishing among the elite teams at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Cross Country Championship at Slippery Rock University.

 “We’ve built the whole season around the next two weeks,” explains Rohl. “And I know we’re ready. This is Charity’s (Learn) last PSAC meet and she and Rachel (Hall) have both run extremely well during the regular season.”

 No Mountaineer team has finished higher than eighth at the conference championship with a 10^th place finish last year.

 The Mountaineers prepped for the upcoming PSAC and NCAA Regional Championships by capturing the Collegiate Track Conference (CTC) Championship last Saturday in Allentown. The CTC was made up of 12 teams from the NCAA Division I, II and III levels.

 Charity Learn (Troy) has been the foundation for the building of a quality cross country program at Mansfield over the last four years. Learn stunned the PSAC by finishing second at the Championships as a freshman in 2002.  Despite injuries, Learn finished 10^th in 2003 and seventh last year. No one has even come close to her success in school history.

 Learn won the first three meets she ran in this season before finishing third at the CTC last week.

 Rachel Hall (New Milford/Blue Ridge), who was the PSAC Women’s Runner of the Week after finishing second at the CTC, has pushed Learn all season long finishing in the top five in four of the five meets she has competed in this year. Hall finished eighth in the PSAC Championship as a freshman in 2003 before missing the championship because of an injury last season.

 But the 2005 Mountaineers are far from a two women team and there in lies the excitement. Learn is the only returning runner from the team that competed in last year’s championship, but the talented freshman class is what has Rohl excited.

 Learn’s younger sister Tricia Learn (Troy) has finished in the top six in four of the Mountaineers five meets this season.

Fellow freshman Clarissa Correll (Mansfield/Mansfield) has placed in the top 20 in four of the five meets this season, including a seventh place finish last Saturday.

 Fellow freshman Heather Wida (Pine City,NY/Southside) has also had an impressive rookie season peaking with a 10^th place finish at the CTC.

 “We have the potential to run with just about anybody in the conference,” said Rohl. “If they run their best race, all five could be All-Conference. There is no doubt this is the best team Mansfield’s ever had.”

 Although not expected to be as strong, the Mountaineer men have an ace-in-the-hole in Chris Cummings (Mansfield/Mansfield). The junior was fourth at the championship as a freshman and finished sixth last year.

 Cummings, twice named the PSAC Runner of the Week this season, won the men’s title at the CTC last week, has won three of his five meets this season and finished an impressive 32^nd at the Penn State National Invitational two weeks ago.

 Newcomer Bryan Morseman (Addison,NY/Addison) has provided strong backup for Cummings, finishing in the top 10 in four meets this season including third last week.