After taking a week off following the Big West Championships, the league's cross country clubs head to the Bay Area for the NCAA West Region Championships. The meet is being held at Stanford Golf Course in Stanford, Calif., and hosted by Pac-10 power Stanford University.

The meet will feature a litany of Division I programs from the states of Arizona, California, Hawai’i, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The top two teams and four individuals from the women's 6K and the men's 10K will advance automatically to the NCAA Championships scheduled for Monday, November 24. At-large teams and individuals will be added once the NCAA determines the criteria following all the regional meets.

A year ago, the Big West saw two teams and two individuals emerge from the West Region meet and advance to the NCAA Championships.

On the men's side Cal Poly earned an at-large berth in 2007 after finishing fifth in the men's race. This season the 19th-ranked Mustangs will look to make their sixth appearance at the NCAA meet. Keep an eye on UC Riverside, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State at the regional meet, as all four of the aforementioned clubs are ranked in the top 15 of the ultra competitive West Region.

On the women's side, UC Santa Barbara earned an at-large berth in the NCAAs after a fifth place finish in the 2007 meet in Oregon. The conference also returns an at-large individual competitor to the West Region field in UC Riverside's Brenda Martinez.

The aforementioned Highlanders look to continue the momentum of their Big West championship with a solid performance at the regional meet. UCR, which is receiving votes in the latest national poll, is the highest conference team ranked in the region at #6. UC Irvine (#10) and UC Davis (#13) are also regionally ranked, while the Anteaters have a former automatic NCAA qualifier returning this season in Laura Olvera.