WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Williams College men's and women's cross country teams will host 23 visiting men's teams and 22 visiting women's teams this Saturday at their home course at Mount Greylock Regional School.

 

This year's field for the Purple Valley Classic will include its first entrant from California in Pomona-Pitzer and its first entrant from Texas in the University of Texas-Tyler.

 

Pomona-Pitzer is bringing a men's team, while UT-Tyler is bringing both it's men's and women's teams.

 

The field for this year's Purple Valley Classic is particularly strong with the top New England teams fielding both their men's and women's teams, a strong SUNY Geneseo program, Pomona-Pitzer, and Stevens Tech.

 

Seven of the men's teams competing this weekend are nationally ranked and in the women's race four of the top seven teams in the nation will run.

 

Amherst, MIT, Middlebury, SUNY Geneseo, and Williams are all ranked regionally and nationally in both genders in the United States Track and Field Cross Country Association's (USTFCCCA) most recent poll.

 

"We're excited to be hosting two-good sized fields that are top-loaded with talent," Williams coach Pete Farwell said. "Next year I'm going to try and get representation from all eight NCAA regions. This race will be a good early season test for us, but we will be more focused on the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh the next weekend."