OREM, Utah - After having two weeks off from their last meet, the Utah Valley University men's and women's cross country teams will travel to South Bend, Indiana, this week to compete in one of the larger contests they will participate on the season. The Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational will be held on Friday, Oct. 4 and will begin at 11 a.m. MT/1 p.m. ET.   
 
During the two-week break, senior Kevin Lynch was named the Western Athletic Conference Men's Athlete of the Week. Lynch posted the top 8K time in the WAC this season, taking third over 200 runners at the UC Riverside Invitational in California. Making his season debut, he covered the course in 24:14.82 to help the Wolverines earn a fourth-place finish among 26 teams competing. Lynch is the reigning WAC Men's Athlete of the Year after winning the WAC Cross Country Championship a season ago. 
 
The annual Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational will be contested at the Burke Golf Course on the University of Notre Dame campus. There will be a total of five races, with the women's Blue Division race kicking off the meet at 11 a.m. MT/1 p.m. ET, which the Wolverine women will participate in. After three more races, the UVU men's team will participate in the last race of the day, the men's Gold Division starting at 2 p.m. MT/4 p.m. ET.  Admission to the invitational is free and open to the public. 
 
"We are looking forward to going to Notre Dame as this is the premiere meet of the week throughout the country," said UVU head coach Scott Houle. "There's going to be about 50 teams there. Teams are going to be able to have opportunities to score some points by beating teams from other regions. And that's the whole crux of cross country. You've got to race outside your region."
 
This year a total of 57 schools will be competing at the 64th Joe Piane Invitational hosted by Notre Dame.
 
Competing against the Wolverine men in the Gold Division will be runners from Akron, Auburn, Cal State Fullerton, Calvin, Clemson, Hillsdale College, Illinois-Chicago, Indiana State, IUPUI, Kansas State, LSU, Miami (Ohio), Oakland, Fort Wayne, Stephen F. Austin, UMass, UTEP, Valparaiso, Wisconsin-Green Bay, and Youngstown State. On the women's side, UVU looks to compete against the host and 12th-ranked Fighting Irish along with in-state competitors Utah and Weber State. Included on the list is No. 1 Colorado, No. 3 New Mexico, No. 6 Washington, No. 8 NC State, No. 9 Wisconsin, No. 14 Ole Miss, No. 16 Iowa State, No. 17 Florida State, No. 25 Boston College, No. 29 Minnesota, Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Bradley, Butler, Colorado State, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, and Purdue.
 
"This is a big meet for us," added Houle. "We look forward to having our men get out there. It's a strong team that we have led by Kevin Lynch and we have some young guys right behind him with Hawk Call and Geofrey Kemboi. We're looking forward to seeing what they can do in this sort of atmosphere.
 
"On the women's side, they are starting to find themselves and beginning to run really well. All their workouts are looking great. Previously at Notre Dame we have been led by different runners every time. We're excited to see who will be the one to lead the team this year. It's always fun to go to a different region.
 
RECAP FROM LAST YEAR'S NOTRE DAME INVITATIONAL
The UVU men's cross country team took 10th place overall at last year's meet. Lynch led the Wolverines by clocking in a time of 24:31.2 and coming in 26th place in the Blue Division 5-mile race. Those returning this year that have raced this course before are Britain Reynolds (24:56.0), Adrian Jones (25:15.2), Kale Sharp (25:20.8), Geofrey Kemboi (25:23.8), Jared Gonzalez-Perez (26:06.0), and Hawk Call (26:44.3). 
 
The women's team saw great success at the same race last year. The Wolverines took first place overall out of 18 schools they competed with. Coming in first for UVU was Hannah Branch with a time of 17:37.1 in the 5K Gold Division. Adding to UVU's success were returning runners Savannah Neuberger (17:44.3), Maggie Zwahlen (17:52.7), Mazzie Melaney (18:20.3), Megan Nielsen (18:33.1), Kami Lynch (18:39.9), and Taylor Viertel (18:51.8).
 
LOOKING AHEAD
October is a busy month for the men's and women's UVU cross country teams. They will have a race every week this month as they look to prepare for the WAC Championship. After finishing in Indiana, the team will head to Southern Utah to compete at the SUU Color Country Invitational (Oct. 12), followed by the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational in Sunnyvale, California (Oct. 19) and rounding out the season by heading to Salt Lake City for the Utah Open (Oct. 25).