UTICA, N.Y. – The SUNYIT Men's and Women's Cross Country teams will travel to SUNY-Cobleskill this weekend to compete in the NEAC Cross Country Championships.

The championships will begin with the men's race at 11:00 a.m. followed at 12:00 p.m. by the women's race. Admission to the event will be free for the general public. This will mark the second time Cobleskill has hosted the NEAC Cross Country Championships, having previously hosted the event in 2008.

This year's races will feature the most teams in the event's history, as 12 teams will vie for the league's 2011 championships. Bill Tylutki – coach of the defending champion Wildcat men's team – expressed excitement for the challenge:

"This is what we've prepared all year for. The course at Cobleskill is a pretty sound course: varied terrain, a relatively nice uphill stretch, and we were out there last week and it's dry. It does have about a mile-and-a-half of pavement in it so the kids can't wear spikes, but every team has to deal with that and we'll be prepared."

The men's team is coming off a solid 3rd place showing at the CCOC Invitational in Geneva, NY, and Tylutki thinks the strong bonds his players have formed with each other over the years will continue to be a strength:

"The guys know that in order for us to win as a team, we have to run as a team. Cross country is such a strenuous sport – it's 25 to 30 minutes of 100 percent effort, knowing that if just one guy out of our top five or seven doesn't do his job it could cost us a race. Our guys' personalities really mesh together, and they really depend on and support each other."

On the women's side, Coach Erynn Anderson was proud of her team's progress heading into NEAC's:

I think we've made great strides this season," said Coach Anderson, ""We're excited to finally get out to Cobleskill to race. We know how great of a course it is, and it's going to be fun to see how we match up against some conference schools that we haven't raced against in the regular season."