CHADRON, Neb. -- November 4, 2022 -- The Chadron State College cross country team enters the postseason on Saturday, hoping to improve upon its 2021 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship results of 13th place for the men's team and 14th for the women.

The runners will compete at Hill Crest Golf Course in Durango, Colorado. The men's eight-kilometer race starts at noon, with the women's six-kilometer competition slated for 12:50 p.m.

The event is possibly the biggest conference challenge anywhere in NCAA Division II, with five of the top 25 men's teams in the country represented, and six of the top 25 women's squads. Colorado School of Mines leads the men's poll at No. 1, while Adams State is the top-ranked women's platoon.

Several RMAC runners have been named the USTFCCCA national Runners of the Week this season.

The course in Durango should be a challenge. At a race earlier in the season, on the same course, both winners from Westminster College turned in their longest runs of the season.

CSC has not competed head to head with any of the top teams so far this season. The Eagles went up against Black Hills State and South Dakota Mines in their first two races of the season. At the Trojan Invite in Colby Kansas, they saw members of the No. 12 Colorado Christian women's team, the No. 10 CCU men's, and the No. 1 Mines men's, but none of those teams sent their top runners to the meet.

How the Eagles runners stack up against the rest of the conference remains to be seen, however a few on the team ran their collegiate best times at the Kansas meet in mid-October. The women have only run 5Ks so far this season, and many will be entering their first career 6K this weekend.

An open race will also be held for extra runners beyond each team's top seven.

The 2022 RMAC Cross Country Championships will conclude with the awards ceremony, which is scheduled to begin upon the conclusion of the women's race. RMAC Runner of the Year awards will be presented to the first-place finisher of each race, while the Freshman of the Year honors will be presented to each event's top-finishing freshman. RMAC All-Conference teams will also be determined by the finishing results with the top 14 finishers earning first-team honors and the 15th through 28th-place finishers earning second-team distinctions.

Live results and course maps can be found on the RMAC Championships page at RMACSports.org.