The Cardinal men’s and women’s cross-country teams will defend their conference titles at the Pac-10 Championships on the Stanford Golf Course beginning at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The fifth-ranked men’s squad will be looking to extend their Pac-10 title streak to seven seasons, having won every championship since 2000. Meanwhile, the top-ranked women will try to start another decade of dominance after winning their tenth-straight conference finals last autumn in Tempe, Ariz.

Both squads are excited about the opportunity to defend their team titles while racing competitively on the Farm one last time this season.

“There is tremendous energy going into Pac-10s, knowing that our home course will be packed with Stanford fans,” junior Arianna Lambie said.

Both teams come into the Pac-10 Championships following good performances two weeks ago at the Pre-NCAA Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind. The women dominated the field on their way to first place in their race while the men took second, finishing just behind No. 3 Iona.

The Cardinal men return five of their top six finishers from the 2005 Pac-10 Championships: junior Neftalem Araia, senior Jonathan Pierce, senior Brett Gotcher, senior Jacob Gomez and sophomore Hari Mix. Araia led Stanford in last year’s event with a third-place finish in a field of 76 runners, crossing the line with a time of 24:13. Pierce and Gotcher were close behind, also cracking the top ten with times of 24:26 and 24:37, respectively.

These results propelled the squad to victory by a fairly comfortable margin of 32 points over No. 25 Arizona, who finished in second place.

The women also return three runners from the top ten and their top six runners overall from last year’s Pac-10s. Lambie will take the starting line, pursuing her second consecutive individual title. She finished ahead of all 85 other women in the field with a time of 20:20. Sophomore Lindsey Flacks finished third at 20:52, and junior Teresa McWalters captured fifth at 20:56. Junior Lauren Centrowitz and seniors Amanda and Katy Trotter also finished in the top 15.

The women’s team results were closer than the men’s. Stanford’s 34 points narrowly edged out Arizona State’s 40. No. 8 Arizona State figures to be one of the Cardinal’s main rivals this year after a strong showing at the Pre-NCAAs. On the men’s side, No. 7 Oregon is the Cardinal’s closest rival. The Ducks finished in sixth place at last year’s Pac-10s and return their top finisher from that race, senior Patrick Werhane.

Despite the Cardinal’s recent record of success in conference championships, there will be no complacency in the Stanford camp.

“Pac-10s is one of our most important meets, and we’ll make sure we’re ready to defend our title,” Lambie said, adding that the depth and hard work of the team “is making it hard to choose the ten women to run at Pac-10s.”