SEGUIN -- The UT Tyler men's cross country team is primed for the NCAA South/Southeast Regional Meet set for Saturday morning on the campus of Texas Lutheran.

The Patriots have already won a meet on the TLU course this season, taking the American Southwest Conference Championships there just two weeks ago.

Entering the NCAA meet, UT Tyler is ranked third in South/Southeast region, moving up one spot from last week. Emory and Centre top the rankings, while Rhodes and Trinity (Texas) round out the top five.

UT Tyler has the best scoring average coming into the meet. The top five runners averaged a time of 26:19 en route to the ASC team championship.

Senior Jeff Chandler, who individually qualified for the national championship race last season with a fourth place finish at the regional meet, will lead the Patriots.

Teammate Ross Renfroe is fresh off of his first individual victory at the conference meet. Renfroe broke the tape in 25:42.

Nicklas Huff was fourth at ASC meet, followed by Will Krogman in sixth and Ford Noack in eighth.

The sixth and seventh runners for the men's squad will be Kyle Clawson and Derek Blain. It will be Clawson and Blain's first time to compete at the regional meet.

Only the top two teams qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Oshkosh, Wisc. Individually, the top seven runners that are not a part of those two teams also qualify for the national championship meet.

For the women, Ginny Murphy will represent the team after individually qualifying. Murphy finished 7th at the ASC Meet , completing the 6k course in a personal best time of 24:42.

The women toe the line for the 6k race at 9 a.m., and the men follow at 10 a.m. for the 8k.