Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton College women's cross country team has been selected to participate in the NCAA Division III Women's Cross Country Championships on Saturday . The event will be held at the Golf Center at King's Island in Mason, Ohio and the women's race will begin at 12:30 p.m. (EST).

\Wheaton finished sixth yesterday at the Division III Midwest Regional in Winneconne, Wisconsin with three runners inside the top-25. This year's selection marks Wheaton's first appearance at the Division III Women's Cross Country Championships since 2008.

Head coach Scott Bradley notes of his team's selection, "We are really thrilled and grateful to get the opportunity to participate at Nationals. We felt like it should happen, but didn't know if it would" He added, "Our girls really wanted to earn the selection as a team this year. They did a great job of training all year and executing their race plans throughout the season."

Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in Saturday's Division III Championship event.  The top two, seven-person teams automatically qualified from each of the eight regions, for a total of 16 teams. Sixteen additional teams were selected at-large.

Fifty-six individuals, the first seven athletes from each region who are not a part of a qualifying team, were selected to participate in each championship.