The N.C . State cross country team continued to dominate the region as both the men’s and women’s teams finished in the top two positions in the regional meet in Kentucky over the weekend to secure automatic births in the NCAA championships.

It marked the 27th occasion the Wolfpack women have taken part in Nationals, and according to coach Laurie Henes , qualification was the first thing on everyone’s minds at the regionals.

“I think the main thing was to enter the NCAA championships to make sure you finish in the top two because the top two get automatic bids,” Henes said. “We were happy to do that even though we wanted to win the regionals and in the end we were six points shy. Overall, it was a good, solid day and now we are looking to move on to the NCAA championships and have a good run there.”

Henes , who was also ACC Coach of the Year in 2006, said the team members have set lofty goals for themselves going into this weekend’s competition, but goals she feels the team members can accomplish.

“We want to definitely finish higher than last year [24 th in the nation],” Henes said. “One of the goals of the programs is to always have the chance to finish in the top 10 and I think we have a very good chance of doing that, but sometimes it ends up being a very small number of points in a field that big. If everyone goes out there and has their best race, we certainly have an opportunity to finish in the top 10.”

The men’s cross country team that not only won the ACC championship, but also emerged victorious by a huge margin in the regional championships, was all a result of head coach Rollie Geiger, presently in his 30th year of coaching at State.

“It’s important obviously to be at the top of your game on that day and we ran well upfront with Ryan and Andrew and then we ran well from our third guy to our seventh guy,” Geiger said. “It was a good team performance; it wasn’t just two athletes upfront.”

Geiger, who last week won his 33rd ACC Coach of the Year award and leads one of the few N.C . State programs that has been consistently challenging and winning titles over the last few decades, felt it was rewarding for him to see his athletes achieve what they have worked hard toward.

“I know how important it is for the athletes of this program to be in the national championships, I know the commitment they have made as a student athlete to be at the national championships,” Geiger said. “For me as a coach, you want your athletes to have success because of the work involved and the time involved, it’s rewarding for me to see that happen for them.”

Despite the graduation of ACC and Southeast regional champion Ryan Hill and many other top runners, Geiger felt the team had enough depth to make up for these losses.

“Ryan [Hill] is graduating, Bobby Moldovan’s graduating and so are Adam Henken and Greg Dame. Even though we do have seniors graduating we have some outstanding freshmen that we are red-shirting,” Geiger said. “I don’t want us to go backwards, we want to maintain the level we are at and attempt for the conference championship, qualify for the nationals. We have some young athletes and I hope to see them make a difference next year.”

Hill, who has been on fire with his performances in the ACC and regional championship, felt the team was more mature and talented in comparison to previous years and that would be the key to improve upon their 20 th place finish from last year.

“I think we are a little more talented this year as a team,” Hill said. “We are a little older and we kept our training going on until much later this year. We have a good strategy this year and a good team identity of how we race together and we work well together so overall we are more equipped. We are going to try push into the top five and definitely into the top 10.”

The team bonding was what made the program so successful according to Hill, a two-time All-American.

“It’s like a family and you can tell that when they first came out recruiting us in high school,” Hill said. “Everyone’s together for one goal and you can really sense that every day in practice.”

“It’s a great environment to succeed in,” he added.

The NCAA men’s and women’s cross country championship will be held Nov. 21 at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind .