Southern Utah campus briefs

CROSS COUNTRY: The Thunderbirds will be on a national stage this weekend when they travel to Albuquerque for the NCAA Mountain Region meet.

SUU will enter the meet with plenty of momentum after the women swept individual and team awards at the 2009 Summit League Cross Country Championships, while Cameron Levins earned Summit League MVP honors following his first-place finish at the championships.

Sharla Manuele led the charge for the women with a first-place finish and was followed by teammate Diana Medina in second place. Freshman Whitney Curtis was named the Summit League Newcomer of the Year by way of her 11th-place finish, marking the top finish by a freshman in the conference. Head coach Eric Houle was honored with his 34th Coach of the Year trophy following the women's team title.

Southern Utah will be looking for a top-two team finish to secure the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, but could also qualify for an at-large berth with a high enough finish. Should the team not qualify, individual student-athletes will advance to the championship, finishing among the top three runners that have not already qualified with their teams.

Last year, SUU finished ninth in the region on the men's side and 14th on the women's side. The T-Bird women have returned every athlete that ran during the regionals in 2008. The men will have its top finisher from a year ago in Levins who will also look to pace the team again.

Races are scheduled to begin 10:45 a.m. for the men and noon for the women.

MEN'S BASKETBAL: The Thunderbirds travel to Hawaii this week for three games in the University of Hawaii's Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic. SUU opens the tournament Friday night against the host Warriors before meeting Northern Colorado Sunday afternoon and McNeese State on Monday.

The Thunderbirds split a pair of pre-season exhibition games, falling to Mesa State College 67-62 Nov. 3, before bouncing back with a 71-56 win over Adams State last Saturday.

Hawaii won a pair of exhibition games, picking up a 76-65 victory over Hawaii-Hilo on Oct. 30 before notching an 83-69 win over BYU-Hawaii Saturday night.

Northern Colorado rolled over Western State, 111-65 in its lone scrimmage, on Nov. 4.

McNeese State conducted some pre-season scrimmages but will be seeing its first action of the season when it meets Northern Colorado Friday evening.