Albuquerque, NM:University of New Mexico senior Jeremy Johnson will be one of the top contenders for the individual title when he makes his NCAA Cross Country Championship meet debut on Monday, Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind. Johnson, the 2007 Mountain West Conference champion, finished third on Saturday at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships to earn an automatic bid the national meet.

The men’s 10,000-meter (6.25-mile) race will begin at 10 a.m. (Mountain) at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course and will be televised live by CSTV for the first time in championship history. CSTV is available on Comcast channel 274, DirectTV channel 610 and Dish Network channel 152.

New Mexico has had a men’s or women’s representative at the NCAA Cross Country Championships five of the past seven years, though Johnson is the first men’s runner to compete since 2004.

The Lobo men have earned All-America honors three times since 2001 with Santa Fe native Matt Gonzales finishing 30th in 2001 and a program-record second in 2004, and Albuquerque La Cueva product Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott placing 14th in ’04. There have been six cross country All-Americans (seven times) in UNM men’s program history.

Johnson, an Albuquerque Manzano product, has finished no lower than sixth in four races this fall. He led the New Mexico men’s team to its best conference finish (2nd) since 1988 and best score ever at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships. UNM received three votes in the latest national top-30 rankings – the team’s first appearance in the national poll since 2004.

Monday will mark Johnson’s third career race at the LaVern Gibson Course. In his last appearance in Terre Haute, he placed fourth at the Pre-Nationals Invitational (Oct. 27) and broke his own school record in the 8K with a time of 23:27.

Johnson, 23, earned All-America honors during the 2007 outdoor track season with a seventh place finish in the men’s 10,000-meter run in Sacramento, Calif. He was also named to the Academic All-America team last spring and went on to earn his degree in Mathematics in the summer of ’07.