SPOKANE, Wash. – The No. 8 Shippensburg University women's cross country team will compete in the NCAA National Championships for the fourth consecutive season this Saturday from the Plante's Ferry Athletic Complex in Spokane, Washington. The Raiders enter Saturday's meet as the four-time defending Atlantic Region champion.

Admission for those attending the festivities is $5 for adults and $3 for students aged 18 and younger. Tickets can be purchased at the gate. A live video feed of the race is expected to be provided by the NCAA but a link is not yet available.

Shippensburg will head to the NCAA national championship meet for the fourth consecutive season after having six of its seven runners achieve All-Atlantic Region honors. SU earned a team trophy last year with a fourth-place team finish – the second-best performance by a women's squad in school history – while placing 15th in 2009 and sixth in 2008.

Senior Neely Spence, a four-time USTFCCCA Atlantic Region Athlete of the Year, is seeking a defense of her national championship last season in which she edged out Western Washington's Sarah Porter by 15 seconds. The two-time All-American is looking to cap off a storied cross country career with her second national title but will have to do so against a talented field. 

Already this season, Spence won her fourth consecutive PSAC and Atlantic Region championships. In winning the Atlantic Region title, Spence erased 16 seconds from the course record originally established in the 2008 NCAA National Championship race where she finished second as a freshman behind Seattle Pacific star Jessica Pixler. She has now recorded margins of victory at the Atlantic Regional Championship meet of 58, 26, 54 and 53 seconds.

Junior Katie Spratford, a two-time All-PSAC and All-Region runner for the Raiders, is looking to repeat as an All-American this season following a 23rd-place finish a season ago with a then-PR of 21:51.7. Spratford posted solid second-place finishes at the PSAC and Atlantic Regional meets by more than 10 seconds and has erased 43 seconds off her PR.

Senior Sarah Strayer, along with Spence, is one of just two runners on the team who has raced in each of the last three national championship races. Strayer is a two-time All-Region performer who finished 13th two weeks ago at Slippery Roc. She finished 95th as a freshman (23:58), 100th as a sophomore (23:05) and 74th as a junior (23:03).

Sophomore Patty Reis was SU's No. 6 runner at last year's national championships and is fresh off her first All-Region performance with a 17th-place finish at Slippery Rock two weeks ago. Despite missing the first month of the season, Reis has been on point and enters the race as a two-time All-PSAC performer.

Freshman April Schlusser is making significant progress toward becoming an elite college runner and has thrived in her first season with the Raiders. Schlusser finished 19th at the Atlantic Region meet and was the fastest freshman from the PSAC in the field and the second-fastest freshman overall.

Senior Jamie McCollum was SU's alternate last season at the national championship meet and is seeking to make an impact in her final collegiate cross country race. McCollum improved her PR by 48 seconds with a 24th-place finish at the PSAC championship meet.

Sophomore Emma Shank is another first-time All-Region runner who earned 23rd place at the Atlantic Regional meet. Her 36th-place finish at the PSAC championship meet was a 63-second improvement to her 6K PR.

Junior Katie Wiechelt will serve as the alternate.