After getting their feet wet at the Lou Onesty Invitational in Charlottesville two weeks ago, the men's and women's cross country teams will have their first real test this weekend when they travel to Minneapolis for the Roy Girak Invitational.
"It's going to be really competitive on both the men's and women's sides," Virginia coach Jason Dunn said. "On the men's side, there are ten of the top 29 ranked teams running. It's a pretty competitive field."
Reining men's NCAA Champion Wisconsin will compete at the invitational, along with top-ten teams Arizona and Kansas. Other ranked teams attending on the men's side are Arizona State, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan State and Butler.
On the women's side, ninth-ranked Arizona will be the highest ranked team at the meet. Other ranked women's squads participating are Baylor, Minnesota, Marquette and Michigan State. Even though there are some quality teams running, that doesn't mean Virginia won't be able to hold their own at the meet.
"There will be quite a few teams who we should beat," junior Emily Harrison said. "However, there will definitely be a couple of leaders there who we're going to go after."
Dunn decided to rest several of his top men's runners at the Lou Onesty Invitational to try to keep them fresher as the season wears on. However, Dunn knows it's a long season and that this meet is a stepping stone toward the NCAA Championship.
"The way we approach training and the way we approach the season is that we know it's going to be a while before we're at our best physically, before we're rested and before we're sharp," Dunn said. "Hopefully, from an emotional standpoint, our sights are really set towards the end of the season. But I think we still are ready to perform well this weekend."
The women, according to Dunn and Harrison, are relatively healthy right now. However, there is one injury on the men's side that might prove to be a major factor.
"Ryan Foster, one our captains, is out, and I don't know that he'll return this season," Dunn said. "It's a tough loss, but we still return four other All-ACC performers [Jan Forster, Andrew Dumm, Alex Tatu and Andy Biladeau]. Our goals haven't changed as well, and I still feel that we have the personnel to accomplish our goals."
Another key aspect to this meet for both teams involves the National Championship.
"One of the methods by which a team qualifies for nationals is by beating other teams from other regions that will qualify for nationals," Dunn said. "If we beat some team from the west at this meet and then they finish in the top two in their region and they qualify for nationals, then we would get a point for that win."
Harrison and the rest of team have set some high goals in order to help prepare them for the rest of the season.
"As a team we are looking for at least a top-five finish," Harrison said. "I think it will be good to get some experience against some very good teams outside of the ACC. Hopefully we'll get some points for later on in the season."
Both teams would love to have an excellent finish, but Dunn is viewing this meet as a step toward hopefully bigger things this season.
"I think we will certainly gain some confidence from [the meet]," Dunn said. "I think the perspective of both groups right now is that we're trying to keep our focus on the championship meets. We really view these competitions as steps. We're going to build from this weekend and move forward no matter how it goes but the better it goes the easier it is to take bigger steps forward."
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