Xavier Prep and Rio Rico High (boys) are Arizona's representatives Saturday (Nov. 17) at the9th annual Nike Cross Crountry Southwest Regional at Toka Sticks Golf Course in Mesa.

Top schools from Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah compete at this regional. Xavier is one of 13 girls teams competing for at least two and possibley four spots at nationals, which will be held Dec. 1 in Portand, Ore. The top two teams automatically qualify while the third- and fourth-place teams must wait to see if they qualify for at-large berths. 

Several preliminary races will be contested beginning at 8:30 a.m. leading up to the championship races. The boys championship race is set to begin at 10:47 a.m. followed by girls championship race at 11:27 a.m. American Fork (American Fork, Utah) won the boys race last year and Fort Collins was the girls champion.

Other schools competing with Xavier, which finished second at regionals and eighth at nationals last year, are Albuquerque Academy, N.M.; American Fork, Utah; Davis High (Kaysville, Utah); The Classical Academy (Colorado Springs, Colo.); Eldorado High (Albuquerque, N.M.); Fort Collins High; Los Alamos, N.M.; Monarch High (Lousiville, Colo); Mountain Crest (Hyrum, Utah); Odgen  (Utah); Park City High, Utah and Pine Creek, (Colorado Springs). Xavier's lineup that ran at the D-I state meet two weeks ago was comprised of Sarah Fakler, Samantha Mattics, Jane Miller, Sierra Brown, McKenna Gaffney, Julianne Vice and Shelby Brown.

Joining Rio Rico, the Division III state champ with the best combined finish time of every Arizona division champs, are American Fork, Utah; Bonneville (Washington Terrace, Utah); Centennial (Las Vegas, Nev.); Davis High (Utah); Fariview (Boulder, Colo.); HerrimanHigh  (Utah); Los Alamos, N.M.; Mountain View Orem, Utah); Mountain Vista (Highlands Ranch, Colo.); Ogden (Utah); Riverton (Utah) and Sue Cleveland Rio Rancho, N.M. Rio Rico's state championship lineup was Robert Contreras, Ben Noriega, Lee Jones, Oscar Amaya, Braulio Lopez, Jose Gutierrez and Max Bojorquez.