The University of Evansville cross country teams will return to the course on Saturday for the biggest meet of the 2007 season, as the Purple Aces will travel north to Cedar Falls, Iowa to take part in the 2007 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championships.

The men’s 8,000-meter race will begin this year’s State Farm MVC Championships at 10:30 a.m., with the women’s 5,000-meter race set to follow approximately 45 minutes later.  This year’s Valley Championships will take place at Pheasant Ridge Golf Course in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

The UE men and women have not competed since finishing second and third respectively at the 2007 UE Invitational on October 13.  The last two weeks have been spent in training, preparing for Saturday’s meet.

“This is the meet that we have been working towards all season long,” said UE head coach Don Walters.  “All of the training and workouts have been spent working towards this meet, and I think that both teams are ready.

“Saturday’s meet is going to be one of the toughest we have faced all year, because of the fact that the Missouri Valley Conference is as tough as I have seen it in my eight years of coaching.  From top to bottom, every team has been running extremely well this year, and it is going to be a dogfight on Saturday.

“On both the men’s and women’s sides, I want our runners to run for place and not for time.  If you run for place, the time will take care of itself.  When you run for place, you also run as a team, and that is one of the most important aspects of Saturday’s race.”

The UE men will be paced into Saturday’s championships by sophomore Greg Pulscher (Colorado Springs, Colo./Liberty) and freshman Ryan Witters (Evansville, Ind./Memorial), who have run one and two for Evansville in each of the last four meets.  The women will be anchored by the senior duo of Andrea Sonnenschein (Poy Sippi, Wis./Berlin) and Andrea Hoy (Mt. Vernon, Ill./Mt. Vernon Township), who have ranked as UE’s top two runners for each of the last four years.  Sonnenschein, who has posted the third-fastest 5-K time in the MVC so far this year, will be aiming to become UE’s first ever all-conference runner on the women’s side on Saturday.

Following this weekend’s State Farm MVC Championships, the Purple Aces will conclude the 2007 cross country season on Saturday, November 10 at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships in Bloomington, Indiana.