Both the men's and women's cross country teams are set to compete at the SCIAC Cross Country Championships, hosted by Pomona-Pitzer at the Strehle Track in Claremont, Calif., on Friday, October 30, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

The women are scheduled to begin first with a 6k at 9:00 a.m., followed by the men with an 8k at 9:45 a.m.

On the men's side, both Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps enter the championship nationally ranked at 13th and 24th, respecitvely. The Sagehens, the defending SCIAC Men's Champions, raced at six meets during the regular season and recorded impressive team performances at each competiton, finishing no lower than ninth in any of them. Notably, Pomona-Pitzer recorded a perfect score of 15 to win the Pomona-Pitzer Invite, marking the first time a team at the meet had done so. At the Division III Pre-Nationals, Jefferson Wright led the way with a ninth place individual finish, as the Sagehens came in ninth as a group.

The Stags have also raced well across their five meets on the year, highlighted by their performances at the UC Riverside Invitational and Pomona-Pitzer Invitational. CMS finished in eighth and second, respectively, and beat out several Division I teams at the UC Riverside Invitational. Additionally, Jerry Xu posted the second-best 8k time in program history at 23:55.7, coming up just 15 seconds shy of the all-time record. Xu has been a three-time SCIAC Athlete of the Week this season and will look to continue his strong year at the conference championship. 

Redlands, who was picked to finish third in the preseason poll, saw its strongest meet of the year at the UC Riverside Invitational, in which Stian Asper placed second in the open portion of the competition with a time of 24.16.2. 

For the women, CMS comes into the championship ranked ninth in the nation, while Pomona-Pitzer is tabbed as 14th in the country. The Athenas saw five runners enter the top-20 of best 6k times in program history this season, all of which came at the UC Riverside Invitational. Isla Duncan broke the top-5 with a time of 20:37.6, while Sadie Drucker is now top-10 all-time with a time of 20:43.0. At the Division III Pre-Nationals, the Athenas slightly edged out the Sagehens with a team score of 281 to finish in 7th place, while Pomona-Pitzer came in ninth. 

Pomona-Pitzer topped the Pomona-Pitzer Invite with 29 points, led by Maggie Avey with an individual runner-up performance of 22:07.5, good for ninth fastest for a Sagehen in course history. The team also opened the year on a high note, coming in third place at the CSUF Mark Covert Invite. Avey once again led the way with a time of 20:52.8, good for second place in the individual standings. 

In Occidental's final race of the regular season, the Tigers finished in fifth in the Women's Open of the Highlander Invitational, led by missy LeClaire with a 14th place finish with a time of 22:53.2.