Tennessee, which also saw junior Erin Anderson (Kent, Ohio) take 47th at 23:46.39, and Elizabeth McCalley (Knoxville, Tenn.) place 69th at 24:27.68, will make its sixth NCAA team appearance and run in its ninth championship race in school history. The Big Orange, which last qualified in 1998, also had NCAA berths in 1982, 1983, 1989 and 1990 as well as AIAW trips in 1977, 1979 and 1980.

''We are excited to be going to the NCAA Championships,'' first-year UT Head Coach J.J. Clark said. ''It is obviously nice to win the regional championship, because that hasnít been done here since 1983. We get to go compete against the best teams in the country now and see if we can accomplish our goal of finishing in the top 20.

''This is a great opportunity for our program, because we are such a young team,î said the first UT rookie cross country coach to lead a squad to a national meet. ìSharon was the only senior running for us today, and we still have a couple of freshmen who helped us this season who werenít out there in Katie Flaute (Dayton, Ohio) and Mindy Sullivan (Lubbock, Texas). We want to go to NCAAs and try to continue moving up the ladder.''

When the results originally came out after the race, UT was shown with a 71-72 edge over FSU for the victory. After the NCAA-mandated 30-minute protest period, however, a review of the results was requested. Waiting over an hour and a half after the finish to find out the final verdict, Coach Clark and the Lady Vols were relieved and elated to hear the announcement that they were officially the victors by a final score of 72-74.

''It was pretty wild, because we really didnít know what was going to happen,'' Clark said. ''I thought there might be a protest because of the small margin of victory. With a championship on the line, it was definitely something our meet management folks needed to do. We just tried to be patient and let people do their jobs.''

South Florida took third with 83, while Auburn was fourth with 90 and Belmont finished fifth with 165. Other team scores included Florida (177), Georgia Tech (180), Mississippi State (183), Vanderbilt and Tenn.-Chattanooga (226), Samford (289), Georgia State (323), Central Florida (341), Alabama (398), East Tennessee State (420) and Alabama-Birmingham (451).

For Dickie, Saturdayís performance added more accolades to her prolific cross country career at Tennessee. The team captain led her squad to the finish line for the 18th-consecutive time, became the first Lady Vol to grab all-region acclaim four times and etched her name into the books as the initial UT performer to qualify for four NCAA Championships races.

Dickie, Gill and South Floridaís Christa Benton made it a three-woman race. At the three-mile mark, Benton had the upper hand. Gill picked up the pace while navigating a hill on the back side of the course, however, and Benton was not able to match it. Dickie and Benton gave chase, but Gill was too much, finishing in 21:03.87. Benton was third in 21:45.63, and Dickie credited the USF runner for keeping the challenge on for the remainder of the race.