Hempstead, NY - The Hofstra Women's Cross Country team will head to Hammonassett State Park in Madison, Connecticut this Saturday (Nov. 13) to compete in the NCAA Division I Northeast Regional Championship. The women's 6K regional championship begins at noon.

The Pride will be among of up to 42 teams in the region who will vie for a bid to the NCAA Division I Championship, hosted by Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Indiana on Monday, November 22. By NCAA regulations, a maximum of seven runners will compete for each team.

Hofstra Head Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach Peter Alfano had a tough choice to select his seven female runners and will make his seventh and final pick Friday night or Saturday morning before the race. He will be bringing senior Riti Dhillon; juniors Meghan McCloskey and Kelly Lutz; sophomore Cara Mattson and freshmen Kristin Mathis, Brittney Towner, Elizabeth Jerome and Teresa Governale to this year's regional.

The Pride women are coming off a 10th place finish at the 2010 Colonial Athletic Association Cross Country Championships at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington on October 30. Riti Dhillon placed 55th (51 pts.) and recorded her best time ever at the CAA Championships with a 6K time of 23:31, just two seconds off her personal best at the 2008 Penn State Nationals. Kristin Mathis was 69th (60 pts.) in 23:55 with Meghan McCloskey recording her best CAA time, placing 71st (62 pts.) in 23:58. Cara Mattson posted her best CAA time and finished 75th (63 pts.) in 24:18 while Brittney Towner placed 83rd (66 pts.) in 24:43 to round out the scoring members of the Pride. The remaining runners on the Pride ran in a pack with Kelly Lutz finishing 90th (69 pts.) in 25:39; Elizabeth Jerome placed 91st in 25:43; Teresa Governale was 92nd in 25:54.

Only two runners return from last year's Hofstra line-up that competed in the Northeast regional at Franklin Park in Boston. The Pride placed 34th in the 35-team field with McCloskey leading the team with a 201st place finish in 26:11 and Mattson was 209th in 26:30. The winning time in last year's Northeast Regional was Katie Hursey from Syracuse, who clocked a 21:57 time as the Orange won the team title followed by Providence and Stony Brook and Iona. The Pride's best women's finish at the NCAA Regional was 21st in 2007 with the Pride's best individual finish coming in 2005 by Mary Sullivan, who placed 19th in 21:32.