Team USA Minn. Sending Six to USA XC

Team USA Minnesota will send six athletes to Saturday's USA Cross Country Championships in Deerwood, Maryland. The event will serve as the qualifying competition for the USA team for the IAAF World Cross Country Championship to be held in Amman, Jordan on March 28.

Competing for the Minnesota-based elite distance training group will be: Emily Brown, Katie McGregor and Meghan Armstrong in the senior women's 8K race and Matt Gabrielson, Michael Hanlon and Antonio Vega in the senior men's 12K.

The top six finishers in the senior races earn the right to represent the United States at World Cross.

Last year, Brown finished third at the championships and was 18th at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, leading the U.S. women to a fourth-place team finish. Brown has two cross country races under her belt already this winter, having competed in January at the Antrim International Cross Country meet in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and at the BUPA Great Edinburgh International Cross Country race in Scotland.

McGregor was fourth at the 2008 championships and also competed at World Cross on the fourth-place women's team. Last year marked the sixth consecutive time the University of Michigan grad has qualified for the USA's World Cross team . 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 last November.

Gabrielson is a three-time qualifier for the U.S. World Cross Country team, having represented the country at World Cross in 2005-07. This will be his first outing 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.

Armstrong, Hanlon, and Vega will be making their USA Cross Country Championships debuts. All three, however, we collegiate harriers.

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. 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.

Vega, who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007 and competed in three NCAA Cross Country Championships for the Golden Gophers, was an All-American in cross and was the Midwest Regional Cross Country Champion in 2005. Vega most recently finished seventh at the USA Half Marathon Championships in January with a personal best time of 1:02:55.

Other Minnesotans ... Also competing at USA Cross Country are former Stillwater High School star Luke Watson and former Detroit Lakes standout and current Wisconsin Badger Hanna Grinaker.