MEQOUN, Wis. - Both Sabercat Cross Country Teams broke the program record for qualifying for NCCAA DII Nationals, as both teams qualified a full squad of five runners in just their first meet of the season.

Both squads showed their strength, as both squads almost qualified the NCCAA-maximum seven runners from their squad: two runners from the Men's Squad need only to shave three minutes off their time and two runners from the Women's Squad need just a 49-second decrease in their time to make the season finale in Jackson, Mississippi.

The following five runners from the Men's Team broke the 34:00 8K qualifying time and secured their spot in Jackson:

• Cameron Rankin - 31:07.4
• Josh Kruit - 31:13.4 
• Rory Massey - 31:40.7 
• Kurt Wagner - 32:20.3 
• Jeremiah Doak - 32:52.6 

Doak and Massey will run at Nationals for the first time, as the two rookies join veterans Rankin, Kruit, and Wagner at the season's final hurdle.

On the Women's side, freshman runner Anna Brown joins four NCCAA returners, as these five made the cut of a 29:45 6K to secure their berth at the National Meet:

• Katie Holbrook - 24:41.2 
• Kimberly Richerson - 27:25.4 
• Sarah Vander Pluym - 27:33.4 
• Anna Brown - 27:40.9 
• Madelyn Hansel - 29:23.8 

Head Coach Ruth Steinbart had this to say on the team's accomplishment: "Only the top five runners count for scoring purposes (six and seven are "pushers" so their number pushes other teams' scores even higher) so the fact that our top five on each team qualified is a great feat. Hopefully we can lower those times even more throughout the season."

The first chance that the Sabercats will get to lower those times comes on Friday, September 23rd at the Brissman-Lundeen Invitational hosted by Augustana College.