The No. 29 Marquette women's cross country team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championship, to be held on Monday, Nov. 21 in Terre Haute, Ind. It is the sixth consecutive year that the Golden Eagles have earned a spot in the national championship race.

Additionally, Marquette is one of just 10 schools - Arizona St., BYU, Colorado, Columbia, North Carolina, NC State, Providence, Stanford and Villanova are the others - to have qualified for the NCAA Championship in each of the last six years.

"We are absolutely thrilled to get an at-large bid to the national meet. This is our sixth year in a row and we are very proud of the consistency that we have had over the years." said head coach Dave Uhrich. "We were a little nervous yesterday because we knew that there was a chance that we wouldn’t get in, but we felt that our outstanding season would give us a good chance to get a bid."

"The team was in my office on Sunday night and we were waiting for the bids to be posted on the NCAA web site and when we finally found out there was a lot of emotion." Uhrich added. "For the seniors, this will be their fourth straight appearance at NCAA's and they didn’t want to end their career without that final trip. "

This past weekend, the Golden Eagles placed sixth at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championship, totalling 208 points. Third-ranked Michigan captured the race, with 52 points, followed by No. 4 Notre Dame, Wisconsin, No. 22 Butler, and No. 30 Michigan State.

Leading the way for the Golden Eagles was Michaela Courtney, who finished in 26th place overall. She clocked 22:04.4 for the six-kilometer course. Heidi Lindeman crossed the line in 36th place (22:15.6), while Cassie Peller and Susie Emond were 39th (22:23.8) and 45th (22:31.9), respectively. Tara Hinke rounded out the MU scorers in 62nd place (22:53.5). Marquette's 1-5 spread was 49 seconds.

For more information about the NCAA Cross Country championship, click here.