ARCATA — More surprises may be unveiled Saturday by the Humboldt State cross country programs following the Jacks' rapid rise to contention in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Women's Championships. This week, both the men's and women's squads hope to upset the leaders of the pack at the NCAA Division II West Region Championships in San Diego.

Meet Information: The men 's 10K race starts at 8:45 a.m., and the women's 6K follows at 10:15 am. An awards ceremony will be held at the end of the women's race following the 30-minute protest period.  Moving on to the NCAA Division II National Championships will be the top four women's teams and the first three men's teams. Also advancing will be the top two male and female individual athletes not affiliated with a qualified team.

Course Information: The UC San Diego cross country course starts on a large recreation field.  The first hill is about 800 meter into the race and is about 200 meters long.  Descent into the main portion of the course is about 250 meters long and drops 20 meters in elevation.  The first loop on the main course starts shortly after the first mile mark and is all graded dirt.  The first mile is very quick with an overall loss of elevation.  Moving into the two-mile mark, the trail drops further into the canyon, losing an additional 16 meters to the lowest point on the course.   Next up is a short steep uphill portion (about 50m long).  The next portion of the course will have “roller coaster” hills and turns with high brush on either side.  Moving onto the upper trail, both men and women head back into the track stadium.  …At this point the women, after climbing a short steep hill into the track stadium (about 20m long), run approximately 200m on the track in the counter-clockwise direction, finishing on the home stretch in front of the stands. …Instead of heading into the finish, the men move along the backstretch, heading through the gate  they used at the start of the race, heading back up the initial hill across the top woodchip trail near the tennis courts, and passing the four-mile mark before heading back down into the main, tree grove portion of the course.  Once reaching the main trail the men turn left, starting onto the large loop that they ran previously and finishing as the women did on the track surface.

Lumberjack Notes: Finishing another season as the Jacks' No. 1 runner, junior Megan Rolland is again expected to set the pace for HSU after placing a team-best 17th at the CCAA meet two weeks ago. She'll be supported by a strong pack comprised of junior Amanda Garcia, senior Clare Nowel, senior Silvia Manzo, sophomore Tess Dahlgren, and sophmore Irene Graham . …Any of a number of athletes could represent the Humboldt State men at the front, including senior Jesus Solis, who was the Jacks' top finisher in 18th place at the CCAA meet. Looking to help keep the Jacks' score low will be sophomore Eric Malain, senior Steve Kilroy, freshman Andrew Sylvester, freshman Nicholas LaPlant, freshman Austin Huff, and senior Humberto Gonzalez. …At last year's regional championships the HSU men placed 7th in the field of 19 schools. The Lumberjack women finished 18th among the 23 participating programs. Seattle Pacific won the women's title and Chico State captured the men's.

Rankings: Chico State tops the final men's rankings, followed in order by Alaska Anchorage, Western Washington, UC San Diego, Western Oregon, Cal Poly Pomona, Saint Martin's, Humboldt State, Hawaii Pacific and Cal State Stanislaus. …Leading the women's top 10 is Chico State, followed by Cal State Los Angeles, Seattle Pacific, Alaska Anchorage, UC San Diego, Western Washington, Western Oregon, Northwest Nazarene, Cal Poly Pomona and BYU Hawaii.

Moran's Mantra: "Our women's team has an ultimate goal of breaking into the top 10. We moved up in our conference, and we should be able to do the same in region." … "We plan on the men racing better than they did at the conference championships, which could realistically could put them in the top five. We have a game plan this time that should work well." … "I like the course. It's more of a true cross country course than we've seen at many places this fall. And we usually have to adapt to the heat, but it looks like the weather should be reasonable this weekend."