By Steve Holt, Sports Writer

ACU will play host to the NCAA Division II South Central Region Cross Country Championships on Saturday at Sherrod Park, and the men’s team is highly favored to pick up its sixth straight championship.

Sophomore Nicodemus Naimadu is expected to run away with the men’s 10-kilometer race, which will begin a noon Saturday, immediately following the women’s six-kilometer race, which will begin at 11 a.m.

“I think it would be news if Nicodemus or someone from Abilene Christian didn’t win the individual title, and it would be news if the men’s team didn’t win the overall title,” head coach Derek Hood said of his men’s team, which actually dropped to No. 4 in the national coaches rankings.

The top three men’s teams and top two women’s teams will advance to the NCAA Division II Championships, which will be Nov. 19 in Pomona, Calif. In addition to team qualifying, the top two individuals in each race (men’s and women’s) not on an advancing team will also move on to the national meet. Furthermore, individuals finishing in the top-5 but not on a qualifying team or one of the top two individuals can also earn a bid to nationals.

The women’s race is a little less predictable for the Wildcats, as ACU is ranked No. 3 in the South Central Region and has not qualified for the national meet in many years. ACU’s top three women, senior Trina Cox, sophomore Olha Kryv’yak and senior Adeh Mwamba all qualified for the national meet in 2004 and are expected to do the same Saturday.

Hood said he relishes the pressure to send two teams to the national meet for the first time in a long while.

“We need the pressure,” he said. “We need these meets to have some meaning.”

Twenty teams will compete in Saturday’s race, including Missouri Southern, whose men’s team is ranked No. 2 in the regional rankings behind ACU. Third-ranked East Central Oklahoma and Central Missouri State likely will pressure Missouri Southern for the second team qualifying spot.

On the women’s side, ACU will need to defeat at least one of the top two teams in the region, Central Missouri State and Pittsburg State, to advance to the national meet. Truman State, ranked fourth in the region, will be nipping at the Wildcats’ heels come 11 a.m. Saturday.

Hood said that though the top-three women’s runners have not changed from last year, the rest of the team has.

“We’ve got three that could easily finish in the top five, just like last year,” Hood said. “The difference is that they’ll have more of a supporting cast behind them.”

The men’s team certainly will be aided by Serge Gasore, who was named the Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year last week. Gasore, along with freshman Phillip Birgen and senior Martin O’Kello, earned all-LSC honors for finishing in the top-10 at the conference meet on Oct. 22.

But putting all accolades behind them, the men’s and women’s runners have one goal ahead of them: Qualifying for nationals.