La Crosse, WI – Viterbo University athletics director Barry Fried announced today the addition of varsity men’s and women’s cross country teams for the 2008-09 school year.

“We are very excited to announce the addition of men’s and women’s cross country at Viterbo University,’ commented Fried. “Continuing to expand our athletic department has been a vision of mine for some time now and to add cross country to our department is very rewarding.”

The addition of cross country comes one season after Viterbo added men’s and women’s golf. Fried is still in the process of finding a home course for the V-Hawks to participate on and is hopeful to have a place finalized in the near future.

“Our next step in the process is to hire coaches for each team and start the recruiting process,’ commented Fried. “The recruiting process is one of the things I am most excited about because there are a lot of quality runners in the Coulee Region and the surrounding areas. I believe that Viterbo will now be a great option for prospective students who want to continue their running career in college”

Men’s and women’s cross country will become the tenth and eleventh varsity teams at Viterbo. They will join men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball. Cross Country is a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Championship sport which runs in the fall. Currently, there are 187 men’s teams and 193 women’s teams in the NAIA. Like Viterbo’s other sports, the cross country teams will be a part of the Midwest Collegiate Conference (MCC). Currently six schools in the MCC sponsor both men’s and women’s cross country.

“This is an exciting announcement for the MCC,” commented MCC Commissioner Rick Sanders.“One of my primary missions as Commissioner of the MCC has been to grow and strengthen oursponsorship of sports and this is a great step in that mission. I have no doubt that Viterbo will add to theoutstanding reputation and accomplishmentsthat cross countryin the MCC has enjoyed.”

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Editor’s Note: Athletic Director Barry Fried is available for more comments or information at (608) 796-3812 or by email at bjfried@viterbo.edu.