Senior Will Elson and junior Rob Uniszkiewicz will represent the Muhlenberg men’s cross country team at the Division III Championships, held on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., on Saturday.

Both men qualified by finishing in the top 15 at the Mideast Regional last week at Salisbury. The Mules missed qualifying the entire team by a mere five points.

It will be the first national cross country appearance for both runners, although Elson ran in the 800 meters at the 2001 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Last year, Brendan Gallagher became the first cross country runner in Muhlenberg history to run at the national championships.

“Being a junior, I’d like to soak in the experience,” said Uniszkiewicz. “Hopefully, next year the whole team will be a part of it. I have been talking with Brendan, and he’s been a great help. The competition without a doubt will be tough, so I’ll try and hang with the guys from our region and try and pass them.”

The NCAA meet will cap a difficult season for Elson, who was limited to three meets by a stress fracture. He finished third in two of them and 10th in the other.

“I consider myself to be very lucky this season,” noted Elson. “Thanks to the coaching staff, we’ve take small, careful steps to prevent aggravating the injury any further. This season could have gone any number of ways.

“This race is going to go out like a scene from Braveheart, so we’ll have to be careful. On one hand you don’t want to run an erratic first mile, but at the same time you don’t want to be sitting in the back. I am going to take a gamble and put myself near the front. With the congestion of a race of 230 talented runners you can’t expect to pass 70 or 80 guys.”

The weather forecast for Northfield calls for a daytime high of 37 with a 10 percent chance of precipitation on Saturday. On the official site, visitors are advised to “leave your snowshoes at home!”

Click here for the tournament site.

Five members of the Muhlenberg women’s soccer team have received All-Centennial Conference honors for the 2002 season.

For the second straight year, junior Dawn Iberer and sophomore Rebecca Armstrong were first-team selections at forward.

Iberer led the Mules in scoring for the third consecutive season, amassing 38 points on 17 goals and four assists. She broke the school record for career goals (47) during the season and is one point away from tying the program’s career points record of 108. One of 11 players to earn first-team All-CC honors three years in a row, Iberer ranks third in CC history with her 47 goals.

Armstrong scored 17 of her 27 points in CC games, finishing with 11 goals and five assists. The 11 goals ranked third in the CC. After only two seasons, Armstrong already is seventh on the Mules’ all-time chart with 53 career points.

Senior midfielder Jamie Gluck was named to the second team after earning honorable mention last season. She finished her career with 22 points on seven goals and eight assists.

Senior goalkeeper Kim Laurino and junior back Katrina Custance earned honorable mention. It was the third All-CC citation for Laurino, the program’s all-time leader in goals-against average (0.85) and shutouts (25). Custance made the All-CC team for the second straight year.

Six teams that won at least 19 games last season, including one that reached the Division III national championship game, highlight the field for the 21st annual Scotty Wood Tournament, which tips off the basketball season tomorrow and Saturday at Muhlenberg.

The women’s field includes two teams that are ranked in the top 20 in the D3hoops.com preseason poll: No. 20 Muhlenberg (21-4 last year) and No. 13 St. Lawrence (28-4). The Saints were the national runners-up in 2002, falling to Wis.-Stevens Point by two points in the championship game. They graduated their top three scorers, including the Division III player of the year.

Rounding out the women’s field are Stevens Tech (20-7) and the Mules’ first-round opponent, Albright (6-18).

The first game of the men’s tournament matches Staten Island (22-7) against Richard Stockton (20-9). Staten Island won the City University of New York Athletic Conference title last year and played in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, while Stockton tied for the New Jersey Athletic Conference regular-season championship.

Muhlenberg (19-6) squares off against Stevens Tech (8-18) in the first round. Should the Mules and Richard Stockton both win in the first round, they would meet in a tournament championship game for the second time in 11 months: In January, Muhlenberg nipped the Ospreys, 67-64, to win the Purple & Gold Classic at Whittier College in California.

Both Muhlenberg teams have advanced to the championship game every year of the Scotty Wood Tournament (the women have been part of the tournament since 1993).

Scotty Wood Tournament
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22
1:00 St. Lawrence vs. Stevens Tech (women)
3:00 Muhlenberg vs. Albright (women)
6:00 Richard Stockton vs. Staten Island (men)
8:00 Muhlenberg vs. Stevens Tech (men)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23
1:00 women’s consolation
3:00 men’s consolation
6:00 women’s championship
8:00 men’s championship