The Minnesota and Drake women’s cross country teams will square off in the seventh Oz Memorial Run on Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Les Bolstad Cross Country Course in Falcon Heights, Minn. Joining the Golden Gophers and Bulldogs in the field for the meet honoring late Drake coach Gary Osborn are North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Minnesota State.

The women’s 6-kilometer race begins at 10:30 a.m., followed by a men’s 6K event at 11:15. The Gopher men are not competing in the meet, instead running in the BYU Autumn Classic in Utah on Saturday.

The Gophers have won five of the six team titles in the history of the Oz Memorial Run, the last two seasons recording perfect scores of 15 points. A new individual medalist will be crowned in 2007 after graduated Emily Brown won the 2006 title in a time of 20 minutes, 48.26 seconds to record the fastest time ever by a Gopher on their home course.

Minnesota runners have captured Oz medalist honors five times with Brown and Lauren Williams winning twice in their Gopher careers. Corinne Nimtz won the first Oz title in 2000.

Gopher All-American Ladia Albertson-Junkans is not expected to compete in the event on Saturday due to a slight illness so next in line for Minnesota to take charge are a pair of All-NCAA Midwest Region honorees from a year ago in Jamie Cheever and Gabriele Anderson. The duo finished 1-2 in last week’s intrasquad meet.