JOPLIN, Mo. ? The UC San Diego men's and women's cross country teams took part in the annual Southern Stampede hosted by Missouri Southern State University on Saturday morning. The 13th-ranked Triton women finished 3rd out of 37 teams in the University/Open 5k race while the men finished 11th out of 36 in the University/Open 8k competition. Both races were run on the same course that will be used for the 2007 NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships in mid-November.

Seniors Diane Dunn, Emily McGregor and Amanda Burkhardt paced the UCSD women, finishing as the top three runners on the team and the 9th, 15th and 24th fastest women overall, respectively. Dunn's time of 17:49 was 19 seconds quicker than McGregor who finished 16 seconds ahead of Burkhardt's time of 18:24.

Juniors Ashleigh Montgomery and Catherine Strouse were the final two Tritons to score in the women's race, finishing 49th and 53rd overall with their respective times of 18:53 and 18:57.

As a team, UCSD only finished behind the University of Tulsa and the host institution, Missouri Southern State. Tulsa posted a team score of 46 while MSSU had 122 points, 28 fewer than the Tritons.

On the men's side, the top five finishers were all juniors, led by Kevin Klein and Gabe LaMothe who crossed the finish line in times of 25:36 and 25:41, good enough for 36th and 40th place, respectively, on the day.

Greg Geldman, Matthew Noble and Timur Crone were the next three fastest finishers for the Tritons, posting times of 25:59, 26:26 and 26:32. Geldman's time was good enough for 60th place individually while Noble was the 99th fastest male runner on the day, seven spots ahead of Crone.

First year head coach Nate Garcia will lead his team back into action next weekend at the Boise Invitational on Saturday, September 22nd. The race will be held on the same course that will be used for the NCAA D-II Cross Country West Regional during the first weekend of November.