Courtesy: USATF

The Team USA men's 12K squad looks for a repeat medal-winning performance, while the women's 8K team hopes to return to the medal stand at the 30th IAAF World Cross Country Championships March 23-24 in Dublin, Ireland.

Led by stars Deena Drossin, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Meb Keflezighi (pictured) and Abdi Abdirahman, American runners will toe the start line in Dublin looking to bring team and individual medals home from Ireland.

A total of six races will be held at the World Championships: senior men's 12K and 4K, senior women's 8K and 4K, junior men's 8K and junior women's 6K.

The U.S. senior women's 8K squad appears particularly strong. Five of the team's six members are Olympians and all five have finished in the top 13 in World Cross Country long- or short- course competition. The squad is led by five-time defending U.S. champ Deena Drossin, who expressed confidence in the team's chances after winning her fifth U.S. 8K national cross country title at the USA Winter Nationals last month in Vancouver, Washington.

"I think the team we have going to Worlds is awesome," she said. "Good enough to get bronze on a bad day and gold on a good day."

Drossin easily defended her U.S. long course crown in Vancouver by a 15-second margin over a talented field. In 2000, Drossin led the U.S. women's long course cross country team to the bronze medal with her 12th place finish in Vilamoura, Portugal. Drossin demonstrated her fitness earlier this month by winning the U.S. 15K Championships at the Gate River Run in Jacksonville, Florida in the new American record time of 48 minutes, 12 seconds, breaking a mark that stood for 12 years. Drossin's 15K victory was her third consecutive win at that event.

Adding extensive international experience to the U.S. squad is three-time Olympian Colleen De Reuck, a native of South Africa who became a U.S citizen in December 2000. The 1996 winner of the Berlin Marathon and the runner-up at the 1997 New York Marathon, De Reuck won the USA 8K Championship, the Arturo Barrios 10K and the Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women in 2001.

Other strong competitors on the women's 8K team include two-time Olympian and two-time U.S. short course cross country champ Amy Rudolph, who placed 9th at the 1998 World Cross Country Championships at 4K, helping the U.S. team to the bronze medal. 2000 Olympians Elva Dryer and Jen Rhines and 2001 USA Running Circuit Grand Prix champion Milena Glusac are also on the team.

Dryer finished 8th in the short course event at World's in 1998, leading the U.S. team to the bronze medal. She appears ready to battle it out with the world's best after finishing second at the 2002 USA 15K Championships.

Rhines has also enjoyed success at the World Cross Country Championships, finishing 13th on the bronze medal-winning U.S. women's long course team in 2000, one spot behind Drossin. Rhines looks strong going into Dublin following a 43-second PR at the recent USA 15K Championships.

The senior women's 4K team will be led by 2002 U.S. Winter Nationals runner-up Carrie Tollefson and three-time Olympian Suzy Favor Hamilton.

A four-time NCAA champion while at Villanova, Tollefson punched her ticket to Dublin with a runner-up finish in Vancouver in 13:01.0. She also finished third in the 3,000 meters at the 2002 Indoor Championships in New York.

Favor Hamilton finished third at last month's Winter Nationals, where she competed in cross country for the first time in more than a decade. The runner-up at the 1990 NCAA Cross Country Championships as a senior at Wisconsin, Favor Hamilton ran the fastest 1,500m time in the world in 2000 (3:57.40), making her the second fastest American woman ever.

Mary Jayne Harrelson will compete in the 4K race in Dublin after a strong indoor season. Harrelson was the runner-up in the 800m (2:04.00) and the mile (4:33.88) at the 2002 USA Indoor Championships in New York, and finished sixth at the 2002 USA Cross Country Winter Nationals.

Other members on the senior women's 4K team include two-time NCAA Division III cross country All-American Sarah Hann, seventh- place 4K and 8K XC finisher Sarah Toland, and fifth-placer in Vancouver Janet Trujillo, who placed sixth in the mile (4:41:45) at the 2002 USA Indoor Championships.

Team USA's men's 12K squad returns to the World Cross Country Championships after winning the bronze medal at the 2001 Championships in Ostend, Belgium. The team will be led by two- time defending U.S. champion Meb Keflezighi, who edged teammate Abdi Abdirahman for his second straight national 12K cross country title in Vancouver. Both competitors finished the course in 34:45, with Keflezighi winning the title in one of the closest Championships races ever. A 2000 Olympian and the American record holder at 10,000 meters, Keflezighi also won the recent U.S. 15K Championships, successfully defending his title in 42:29. Keflezighi is looking to improve upon last year's 13th- place finish.

Abdi Abdirahman returns to the World Cross Country Championships after placing 15th in Ostend. The 2001 U.S. 10,000m champion, Abdirahman finished 10th in that event at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

The University of Colorado's Dathan Ritzenhein will compete at the World Cross Country Championships again after winning the bronze medal in the junior men's race last year. Competing on a U.S. team for the first time as a senior athlete, Ritzenhein earned his place on the U.S. squad was fifth at the 2002 Winter Nationals.

The 1999 Big Ten cross country champion, Matt Downin will compete in Dublin after finishing 4th in Vancouver in 36:00. He will be joined by Greg Jimmerson, who won a team bronze medal at last year's Worlds (52nd-42:14), and two-time NCAA All-American Clint Wells, who was 7th at last month's Winter Nationals.

One of America's finest up-and-coming steeplechasers, Tony Cosey, will lead a young but talented U.S. team into the senior men's 4K competition in Dublin. An Olympian in 2000, Cosey placed 3rd at the 2002 Winter Nationals in Vancouver.

A junior at the University of Colorado, Jorge Torres made the U.S. men's 4K squad for Dublin after his runner-up finish last month in Vancouver in 11:27. Torres competed at the 1998 World Cross Country Championships placing 37th in the junior men's race in 29:01, and recently he finished 2nd at the 2001 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. Earlier this month Torres placed 2nd (13:50.35) in the 5,000 meters at the 2002 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Seven-time collegiate All-American Matt Lane is also on the squad after finishing 5th at the 2002 Winter Nationals in 11:30. Lane will be joined by 2001 NCAA Outdoor 5,000m champion Jonathan Riley, 1999 NCAA Division III Cross Country champion Dave Davis and two-time steeplechase All-American Jared Cordes.

Team USA's men's and women's Junior champions Tim Moore and Maria Cicero will lead their respective squads in Dublin.

Moore, a senior at Novi (MI) High School, enters his first World Cross Country Championships as the 2001 Foot Locker Cross Country High School champion. Last year he received Michigan All- State recognition in the 1,600m, 3,200m and 4x800m relay. He plans to attend the University of Notre Dame in the fall.

Other junior men's standouts include 2001 Foot Locker South Region champ Bobby Lockhart of Winchester, Virginia, who tied Alan Webb's course record in winning the Foot Locker regional title. Bill Nelson, a senior at Taft Union High School in Bakersfield, California, who was 9th at the 2002 Foot Locker Nationals and is the California Division VI champ. West Virginia University's Zach Sabatino, the 2001 West Virginia state 3,200m champ, is also on the team, along with Georgetown University's freshman Rod Koborsi, a former Texas 5A state cross country titleist. Yong-Sung Leal, a prep standout from San Leandro, California, is the 2001 California state champion at 3,200 meters.

Maria Cicero will lead the U.S. junior women's team after a terrific performance at the NCAA Cross Country Championships. A freshman at Boston College, Cicero earned All-America honors by finishing 16th earlier this month at the NCAAs.

University of Colorado freshman Erika Odlaug earned her second Team USA uniform with her runner-up finish at the Winter Nationals. The 2001 USA Junior women's 3,000m champ, Odlaug placed 2nd in a new personal best of 9:34.06 at last year's USA vs. Great Britain Junior Dual Meet. The 2001 Pac-10 Women's Newcomer of the Year, Stanford's Sara Bei finished second this year at the Pac-10 Championships and 7th at the NCAA West Regional. Bei won the 2000 Foot Locker National Cross Country title. Georgetown's Nicole Lee finished fourth at last month's Winter Nationals and 10th at this year's Big East Championships. Brigham Young's Kassi Anderson was one of the country's top high school 800m runners last year, running the nation's fifth fastest time of 2:08.71. A senior at Allen (Texas) HS, Valerie Lauver finished eighth at the 2001 Foot Locker Nationals. She will attend the University of Missouri in the fall.