No. 4 West Virginia women's cross country prepare for NCAA Division 1 Championship

West Virginia women’s cross country are looking to bring home some gold as they head to the NCAA Division 1 Championship meet on Saturday. The Mountaineers will travel to the Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wisconsin for the event.

The Mountaineers will enter Saturday as the reigning Mid-Atlantic Regional champs and sit No. 4 in the latest NCAA DI Women's Cross Country National Coaches' Poll -- ahead of WVU in the rankings No. 1 BYU, No. 2 Oregon and No. 3 Northern Arizona. BYU was the only team to top WVU at the Big 12 Championship.

“Anything can happen in this race -- if you think about the nature of the NCAA Cross Country Finals, you’re putting what appears to be the 31 best teams on the line in one place at one time with one gun to say go,” WVU Head Coach Sean Cleary said. “There’s really no politics once they’re on the line…I think if we take care of our business, we’re going to be happy with the outcome.”

Hoping to be in the mix for individual gold is WVU senior Ceili McCabe, who captured her third NCAA Regional crown at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship with a course record of 19 minutes, 11.20 seconds.

“Just being ready to compete with a group of women that you kind of hope to be right with is still the goal,” McCabe said. “Ultimately to win a national championship takes a lot of, obviously, ability, but a lot of luck too, especially in cross country. Really the goal is to be able to compete as best I can to give myself that opportunity.”

The field at the event will consist of 31 teams and 38 additional individual qualifiers. The women's 6k race is slated to begin at 10:20 a.m. ET, followed by the men's 10k at 11:10 a.m. The awards ceremony will be held following the conclusion of the men's race. Saturday's race can be viewed live on ESPNU, while live results are available at WVUsports.com.