After taking a week off following the Big West Championships, the conference cross country squads gear up for the first step towards the NCAA Championships, the NCAA West Regional meet. The event will be held at Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Ore., and hosted by the University of Oregon.

The meet features Division I cross country teams 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 19. 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 performed admirably at the West Region meet, which advanced a record nine clubs to the NCAA finale. On the men's side, Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara received at-large berths into the NCAA Championships and had three athletes named All-West Region. 2007 Big West Athlete of the Year and individual champion Phillip Reid (Cal Poly) is the conference’s lone returning All-West Region selection.

The women's side had UC Santa Barbara claim an automatic berth to the NCAA Championships after finishing second behind Stanford, a squad which has won the last eight regional titles.

The conference received seven All-Region selections, four of which returned to compete in 2007 and finished in the top 12 of the Big West Championships. UC Irvine's Laura Olvera and Sara Mickelson, UC Riverside's Cristina Olivas and UC Santa Barbara's Megan Lewis will all look to repeat their All-Region selections. Of the four, Olvera was the highest finisher with a third place showing which earned her an at-large individual berth to the NCAA Championships.