INDIANAPOLIS -- The Bates women's cross country team is going to the NCAA Division III Championships for the third straight season and the seventh in team history, after the Bobcats received an at-large invitation Sunday to compete as a team at the national championships this Saturday in Louisville, Ky.

The NCAA Division III Championships will be run at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, which was also the site of the 2016 and 2019 national meets. The men's race will begin at 11am Eastern, followed by the women's race at noon. Spalding University and the Louisville Sports Commission are hosting the championships.

The invitation comes a day after the Bobcats' third-place finish out of 30 teams at the NCAA East Regional Championships in Boston. 

For the third straight season, and the fourth time ever, Bates' women's and men's teams both received at-large invitations.

Thirty-two teams were selected to participate in each regional championship. The top seven-person team automatically qualified from each of the 10 regions, for a total of 10 teams (Division III regions were expanded from eight to 10 this season). Nine teams from the previous New England Region received invitations, at least two more than ever were invited prior to the restructuring.

Bates previously ran as a team at NCAAs in 1995 (placing 18th out of 21 teams), 1997 (15th/21), 2012 (19th/32), 2016 (19th/32), 2018 (17th/32), and 2019 (14th/32). No NCAA Championships were held in 2020 due to COVID-19.

With seven runners plus an alternate making the trip, Bates will be led by junior Jillian Richardson (Auburn, Maine), a two-time All-NESCAC and two-time NCAA All-Region selection, who has finished first for Bates in every race in her two seasons. 

Also competing for Bates, listed in order of their finish on Saturday, are senior captain Tara Ellard (Brewster, Mass.), first-year Olivia Reynolds (Cumberland, Maine), junior Ilana Zeilinger (Washington, D.C.), senior Carly Harris (Orinda, Calif.), sophomore Jen Coseno (Sutton, Mass.), and junior Jordan Wilson (Medfield, Mass.). Serving as alternate will be sophomore Anne-Gamble Jennings (Richmond, Va.). 

This will be the third NCAA Championship meet for Ellard, the second for Richardson and Wilson, and the first for the other five Bobcats.

A live webstream of the championships will occur on www.NCAA.com beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern until the conclusion of the awards ceremony.