Harrier women 4th, men 8th at NCAA West Region Championships

The Arizona State University cross country team competed in the NCAA West Region Cross Country Championships Saturday afternoon on the Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., with the women taking fourth overall and the men eighth. Kari Hardt once again paced the women as she finished 10th overall while the men were led by Patrick Milloy, who finished 42nd for the Sun Devils.

In the team races, Washington (25) and Oregon (62) earned the automatic berths to the national meet by finishing first and second, respectively, in the women's 6,000m race with Stanford (91), ASU (128) and Portland (215) rounding out the Top 5 in the 30-team event. On the men's side, Oregon (38) and Stanford (72) earned the region's automatic berths to the national meet while Portland (85), California (116) and Washington (122) rounded out the Top 5. ASU was eighth with 290 points in the 10,000m race that featured 25 teams.

The women led off the day with the 6,000m race that saw Hardt cover the course in 20:18.96 to finish 10th overall. She was joined in the Top 25 by Jenna Kingma (18th in 20:28.53) and Ali Kielty (21st in 20:34.41) with all three women earning all-region accolades. The Top 5 team scorers was rounded out by Haley Paul (38th in 21:12.96) and Angela Spadafino (41st in 21:13.16). Lindsay PrescottCamille Olson, who was unable to complete the race due to injury. (72nd, 21:46.01) also competed in the race as did

In the men's competition, the Sun Devils rebounded from a disappointing finish at the Pa>c-10 Championships two weeks earlier and turned in a solid team performance that saw ASU place ahead of a pair of Pac-10 foes (Washington State and Arizona) in the team standings. Milloy, who placed 42nd in 30:23.11, was followed closely by Ben Engelhardt (45th in 30:27.77), led a charge that saw all of the five scorers finish in the Top 80. Santos Castro (54th in 30:41.91), David Mehlhorn (74th in 31:24.51) and Daniel Lovell (78th in 31:27.42) rounded out the scorers for the team. Thomas Petersen placed 96th in 31:57.27 while Dylan Hatcher did not finish after dropping out of the race because of injury.

The women will now await word from the NCAA selection committee on Monday when the at-large selections are announced for the NCAA Championships on November 24 at Terre Haute, Ind.