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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – For the first time ever, the NCAA Division I Great Lakes Regional Cross Country Championships will come to Evansville, Indiana on Friday, as the University of Evansville and the Evansville Sports Corporation will serve as the hosts of the annual meet.  The women's 6-K event will kick off the meet at 11 a.m. at Angel Mounds Cross Country Course, with the men's 10-K race set to follow at noon.

The Great Lakes Regional Championships will feature 33 women's teams and 30 men's teams competing for a spot in the NCAA Cross Country Championships.  The women's race will include four nationally-ranked teams, including #12 Michigan, #13 Wisconsin, #16 Michigan State and #25 Notre Dame.  Meanwhile, the men's race will also feature four nationally-ranked teams, including #6 Notre Dame, #9 Wisconsin, #12 Michigan, and #28 Butler, while also featuring team champions from the Atlantic Coast Conference (Notre Dame), the Big Ten (Wisconsin), the Big East (Butler), the Mid-American Conference (Eastern Michigan), and the Horizon League (IUPUI).

"This is by far the biggest meet that we have ever hosted," said UE cross country head coach Don Walters.  "When you have the number of top teams that we have coming in for a meet, and all of the top-notch runners who will compete and the fans which will attend, it is a huge thing not only for our program, but also for the city of Evansville."

For Evansville, the Purple Aces will look to graduate student Anna Lowry (Taylorville, Ill./Taylorville) and sophomore Peter Epur (Eldoret, Kenya) to lead the women's and men's teams respectively.  Lowry currently owns three of the top four 6-K times on record at UE, and will be gunning for Kelby Jenkins' 2012 6-K school record of 21:11.  Epur, meanwhile, has led the UE men in all five meets this fall, and he will be competing in his first collegiate 10-K event.  In fact, on the men's side, only senior Caron Kline (Terre Haute, Ind./South) has competed in a 10-K event at the NCAA level entering Friday's meet.

"We have had some injuries lately, and we are a little short-handed going in," said Walters.  "But, I believe that the runners we have competing are in a good spot, and I have told them to just focus on their own race and to try and run the best race that they can individually.  We are going to shoot for P.R. times, and if we do that, it will be a good afternoon on Friday."

The Great Lakes Region in Division I features a good portion of the Big Ten, schools from the MAC and Horizon League, three teams from the Big East, Cincinnati out of the American, Dayton out of the Atlantic 10, Notre Dame out of the ACC, and Evansville, Indiana State and Valparaiso out of the Missouri Valley Conference.