SAN DIEGO - A record field of more than 700 athletes will converge on Mission Bay Park in San Diego, Calif., for Saturday's USA Cross Country Championships. Six races are scheduled to decide national champions for masters men and women; junior men and women; and open men and women.

In addition to the national titles, open and junior men and women will qualify to represent Team USA at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 30. The 2008 USA Cross Country Championships will be televised in association with the AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Championships February 24, from 5-7 p.m. on ESPN 2.

This year's field includes six U.S. Olympians and eight former USA Cross Country Championship titlists, including Elliot Heath (Winona, Minn.) and Jordan Hasay (Arroyo Grande, Calif.), the defending champions in the junior men's and women's events.

The open men's race will see Ryan Hall (Big Bear, Calif.) and Dathan Ritzenhein (Eugene, Ore.) face each other for the first time since the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men's Marathon on November 3, 2007, where both men punched their ticket to Beijing, China for the 2008 Olympic Games. Though Hall dominated the Olympic Trials in New York, the 12 km distance could prove to be more favorable for Ritzenhein when considering his personal best for 10,000 meters of 27:35.65 versus Hall's 28:07.93.

With a men's field that includes seven men who have run faster than 28:00 for 10,000 meters, Hall and Ritzenhein are likely to see challenges from a variety of contenders including recent USA Half Marathon champion James Carney (Boulder, Colo.), 2004 Olympian at 10,000 and the marathon Dan Browne (Portland, Ore.), Olympic steeplechaser Anthony Famiglietti (New York, N.Y.), former NCAA Cross Country champions Jorge Torres (Boulder, Colo.) and Josh Rohatinsky (Portland, Ore.).