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FAIRFAX, Va. – Heading into the Atlantic 10 Conference Cross Country Championships this weekend, George Mason coach Andrew Gerard thinks as many as five to six teams could be in the mix for the men's team title.

And he believes his squad will be right up there in contention.

The men's and women's teams head to Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Va., to compete in the A-10 Championships this Saturday. The meet, hosted by the University of Richmond, will start with the women's 5K at 10 a.m., with the men's five-mile to follow at 10:50 a.m. Both races will be available to watch on a live stream here. 

The Mason men head into the weekend as one of the league's strongest teams, having won their last three meets and climbing to No. 12 in the USTFCCCA Southeast Region rankings. 

At last year's A-10 Championship, they finished fifth, which was a bit of a disappointment considering they captured the team championship in 2014. That performance contributed to the league coaches predicting Mason would finish fifth at this year's meet in a preseason poll conducted in August.

"We know we're better than that (predicted order of finish)," Gerard said. "I think we would not be happy with a finish like that mainly because we know what we're capable of. I think anybody in the league who looked at it last year would say, 'Yeah, Mason is probably better than a fifth-place team.' And this year we're probably better than a fifth-place team for sure. But that is why they run the race."

This year, depth has Gerard and the Patriots confident entering championship season. In three of their four meets, they've been led by a different runner (Luke Sharkey, Adam LaFemina and Grayson Morgan). And in no two races has the order of finish been the same. 

At the VertCross Invitational in North Carolina two weeks ago, the Patriots won the team title with a score of 67, beating second-place Duke by 20 points. Morgan came across the line first for Mason in seventh place, and there was just 34 seconds between him and the team's fifth runner that day – Sharkey, who took 32nd.

It is a big difference from last year when the Patriots had one of the best runners in the conference, Steven Flynn, who won the individual A-10 Championship. But the gap between Flynn, who exhausted his cross country eligibility, and the rest of the team was too wide at times.

"I think we've got a good pack (this year)," Gerard said. "We have not had the same order of guys in any of our meets. So I think we've got a lot of interchangeable pieces. It is going to depend on who shows up on that day. I think that it is a strength for us in that we have that core of guys who can shift around but still are all right there on any given day. I think you have to embrace it as a strength. What it means is if somebody has a little bit of an off day there is somebody to pick up the ball and run with it. I think that is a good thing. This year, if there is somebody slides back a little bit, there is somebody to move forward.

"Everybody has a little bit of a safety net. Last year we were too spread, there was too much of a gap. Even with Flynn running so well there was too much of a gap between our second and fifth scorers. This year, we've kept a real tight gap between No. 1 and No. 5, even No. 6, on a pretty regular basis. That is a good strength to have."

On the women's side, the Patriots are looking to improve off an 11th place finish at last year's A-10 Championship. Their highest finish at the A-10 meet came two years ago, when they took seventh. 

The women have made steady improvement throughout the season and are coming off a strong sixth-place finish at the VertCross Invitational two weeks ago. The young squad, which features six freshmen, is led by sophomore Ciara Donohue and junior Amber Hawkins. The duo has finished 1-2 for Mason in every meet this season. Donohue has finished in the top 10 at all four meets for the Patriots, picking up her first collegiate win at the Mason Invitational earlier this month.

"I certainly think we have the ability and the talent to improve on that (finish from last year)," Gerard said. "The ladies have had a nice, upward trend all season. We've gotten to see a few of the A-10 folks (in other meets). Using those benchmarks, we're in position to improve. I don't want to put a ceiling on what they can do but I certainly think we're in a great position to improve. That having been said, we have a lot of new, young faces in there, and it is going to be their first one. You have to expect a little bit of nerves. But I think we've got them very, very well prepared physically. Mentally, I think they are really excited. We've seen more and more momentum the last couple weeks. If they run to their capabilities, I think we are going to surprise some people."