Shippensburg University senior Neely Spence will compete in the 5,000 meters for the United States on Thursday, October 27 at the XVI Pan American Games from Guadalajara, Mexico. The 5K will be held at approximately 6:30 p.m. on the east coast.

A variety of coverage options are available in both Spanish and English:

• ESPN Deportes – the Spanish-language broadcasting wing of ESPN, is providing live television coverage of the competition. For those that have ESPN Deportes on their television, the network is planning live coverage on Thursday, October 27, from 4-11 p.m.

• WatchESPN, formerly known as ESPN3.com, is expected to maintain a live web stream of the ESPNDeportes coverage. That link is available here.

• The ESPN Deportes home page for the Pan-American Games is available in Spanish here.

• USA Track & Field is also providing daily updates of the Pan-American Games with stories, pictures and more at its website, available here. Included on that page is the USA Pan-Am media guide and links to USA Daily – a newsletter that posts recaps and pictures of the previous day's events.

About the Competition:

• The Pan American Games features 42 nations that will participate in 36 events. It began October 14 and runs through October 30.

• Joining Spence at the Pan-Am Games will be former UC-Davis standout Kim Conley, who finished 10th in the 5K at the USATF meet. Conley is also working as an assistant coach at her alma mater.

• Spence established her 5K PR of 15:27 in June at the 2011 USA Track & Field Championships with a seventh-place finish. She was the only current collegiate runner among the 15 in competition.

UPDATES:

The complete entry lists for the Pan-Am Games is available as a PDF here.

The Top 5 seeds for the 5K, per the entry lists are as follows:

15:27.72 - Neely Spence - USA
15:27.74 - Cruz Da Silva - Brazil
15:27.94 - Marisol Romero - Mexico
15:28.71 - Sandra Lopez - Mexico
15:38.13 - Kim Conley - USA

* Of note: Da Silva and Romero competed in the 10,000 meters on Monday. Romero won the 10K in 34:07. Da Silva was second.

** Simone Silva of Brazil was the original top seed for the 5K and 10K but was disqualified from competition due to testing postitive for EPO.