Team USA Minnesota sends six athletes to compete at USA Cross Country Championships

Led by Emily Brown, Katie McGregor and Matt Gabrielson, Team USA Minnesota Sends Six Athletes to Compete at USA Cross Country Championships Feb. 7.

Minneapolis/St. Paul - February 3, 2009 - Team USA Minnesota is sending six of its athletes to compete at the 2009 USA Cross Country Championships, which will be held on Feb. 7 in Derwood, Maryland (just outside of Washington, D.C.).

Competing in the women's 8k open race will be Emily Brown, Katie McGregorand Meghan Armstrong. The open men's race will be a 12k and will include Matt Gabrielson, Michael Hanlon and Antonio Vega. The race is a qualifier for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships which will be held March 28 in Amman, Jordan.

Brown finished third at the 2008 championships and was 18th at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, leading the U.S. women to a fourth-place team finish. This will be Brown's third cross country race of the year, having competed in January at the Antrim International Cross Country meet in Belfast, Ireland, and at the BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country race in Scotland.

McGregor was fourth at the 2008 USA Cross Country Championships and also competed at World Cross on the fourth-place women's team. Last year was the sixth consecutive time she has qualified for the U.S. World Cross team in the 8k. This will be McGregor's first competition of 2009 and her first race since running a personal best 2:31:14 at the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 2.

Gabrielson is a three-time qualifier for the U.S. World Cross Country team in the 12k having represented the country at World Cross in 2005-07. This will be his first race since finishing second at the USA Men's Marathon Championship in October where he qualified for the 2009 U.S. World Outdoor team in the marathon.

Although Armstrong, Hanlon and Vega will be making their cross debuts at the USA Cross Country Championships, all three competed at the NCAA Cross Country Championships for Division I schools while in college. At the University of Iowa where she graduated in 2008, Armstrong was a three-time NCAA cross country qualifier as well as an All-American for finishing 16th at NCAAs in 2007 with her Hawkeye team placing 10th.

Hanlon was an individual qualifier at NCAA Cross Country from Colgate University, where he graduated in 2007, as well as a three-time Patriot League top five finisher in cross. Vega, who graduated form the University of Minnesota in 2007, competed in three NCAA Cross Country Championships with the Golden Gopher squad, was an All-American in cross, was the Midwest Regional Cross Country Champion in 2005, and was named the 2006 Midwest Runner of the Year. Vega most recently finished seventh at the USA Half Marathon Championships in January with a personal best time of 1:02:55.

Highlights of the 2009 USA Cross Country Championships will be televised on Feb. 15 during ESPN coverage of the Tyson Invitational. The championships consist of six cross country races for men's and women's categories with national titles on the line for junior, open and masters divisions. For more information and results, visit www.usatf.org.

About Team USA Minnesota

Team USA Minnesota is based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Formed in 2001, the purpose of the training center is to improve post-collegiate American distance running and to develop Olympians. The athletes are coached by Dennis Barker, head cross country and track coach at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Team USA Minnesota's major sponsor is Life Time Fitness and its silver sponsor is the Twin Cities Marathon, Inc. It is also supported by the New York Road Runners and the USA Distance Project. For more information, visit the web site at www.teamusaminnesota.org.

For information about the USA Distance Project, or to make a donation to the USA Track & Field Foundation, visit www.usatffoundation.org.