Five Team USA Minnesota Runners to Compete at USA Cross Country Championships – Competitors will race for six spots on World Cross Country team

MINNEAPOLIS – Five Team USA Minnesota runners – Matt Gabrielson, Andrew Carlson, Emily Brown, Meghan Armstrong and Jamie Cheever – will be among the competitors at the 2011 USA Cross Country Championships in San Diego, Calif. on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011. The event is also the World Cross Country Team Trials to select six men and six women to compete at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships that will be held in Punta Umbria, Spain, on Sunday, March 20, 2011.

The open women’s 8K will be held at 1:15 p.m. and the open men’s 12K will start at 2:00 p.m. (Pacific time). The events will be held in Mission Bay Park.

Gabrielson will be seeking his fourth berth as a member of the U.S. team at World Cross having previously been on the team in 2005-07. He most recently competed in Scotland as a member of the U.S. team running in the Bupa Men’s Cross Country team challenge.

Carlson, a two-time national champion (8K and 25K), most recently was a member of the U.S. team at the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships that were held in October.

Brown has been a three-time qualifier for World Cross, having been the national champion in 2009 and a member of the 2010 bronze medal U.S. women’s team. In 2010, she also competed at the NACAC Cross Country Championships in Tobago.

This will be the third time that Armstrong has competed at the USA Cross Country Championships, having finished 13th in 2010 and 12th in 2009. This past fall she placed fourth at both the USA 5K and the 10 Mile Championships.

Cheever will be making her debut as a professional distance runner at a national championship. She joined Team USA Minnesota in January after the three-time All-American competed collegiately in both cross country and track at the University of Minnesota.

About Team USA Minnesota
Team USA Minnesota is based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Formed in 2001, the purpose of the training center is to improve the competitiveness of post-collegiate American distance running and to develop Olympians. The athletes are coached by Dennis Barker, head cross country and track coach at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Team USA Minnesota’s major sponsor is Life Time Fitness (www.lifetimefitness.com) and its silver sponsor is Twin Cities In Motion (www.mtcmarathon.org).

It is also supported by the New York Road Runners and the USA Distance Project.

For more information, visit the team’s web site at www.teamusaminnesota.org