OREM, Utah – The Utah Valley University men's and women's cross country teams will travel to South Bend, Indiana to take part the prestigious Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, Oct. 1.
 
Traditionally one of the toughest cross country meets of the season, the Joe Piane Invite will be held Friday beginning at 8:30 a.m. MT/10:30 a.m. ET. The UVU women are set to compete in the Blue Division women's 5K that morning at 8:30 a.m. MT/10:30 a.m. ET, while the Wolverine men will take part in the Gold Division men's 5-mile run at 12:15 p.m. MT/2:15 p.m. ET. 
 
"We're excited to be back at Notre Dame. This year's field is extremely stacked on both sides. On the women's side there will be 12 or so nationally ranked teams so I'm excited to see how we do," head UVU coach Scott Houle said. "This meet is pretty much a race right at the very beginning, if you don't get out and get off to a strong start then you will be stuck in the back. The most important part it to put yourself in a good spot, and if we do that then we should be able to beat some ranked teams."
 
A total of 56 teams are slated to take part in Friday's meet, which includes 27 nationally ranked squads in the host and No. 2/19 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, No. 10/NR Butler, No. 13/8 Washington, No. 15/6 Alabama, No. 18/15 Ole Miss, No. 19/29 Furman, No. 25/8 Michigan, No. 26/21 Indiana, No. 28/NR Weber State, No. 29/18 Florida State, No. 30/17 Michigan State, No. 30/NR Purdue, RV/#2 NC State, NR/#3 New Mexico, NR/#7 Minnesota, RV/#15 Georgetown, NR/#23 Illinois, NR/#29 Princeton (men's ranking listed first, women's ranking listed second). Akron, Auburn, Ball State, Boston College, California Baptist, Central Michigan, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Clemson, Dayton, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Michigan, Florida, Illinois State, Indiana State, IUPUI, Kennesaw State, Kent State, Kentucky, Loyola, Loyola Marymount, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Ohio State, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Southern Illinois, Southern Miss, Southern Utah, St. Thomas, Toledo, UIC, UPenn, UW Green Bay, Valparaiso, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Western Michigan, Youngstown State and UVU are also all scheduled to participate on Friday.
 
"We are coming off of some really good performances at our last couple of meets and both our women and our men are looking strong and will be ready to go," Houle added. "We are looking forward to our traditional leaders—Britain, Maddie, and Maggie—and seeing if they can help lead the team out in both races. It should be a fun meet and we're looking forward to Friday."
 
LAST TIME OUT
UVU will enter the Joe Piane Invite off of a second-place finish from its men and a third-place finish from its women at the Idaho State Open in Pocatello last weekend. With a number of UVU's runners taking last weekend's meet off, Habtamu Cheney paced the Wolverine men last week by taking second overall with a 5.6K time of 18:31.6, while Zoe Hales led the women by placing third in the women's 5.6K with a time of 22:34.0. It marked the first time of the season that Cheney and Hales led the way for the UVU men and women.
 
LAST TIME AT JOE PIANE INVITE
With the Joe Piane Invite not taking place a season ago due to COVID-19, UVU will enter this year's meet off of a first-place finish from its men's squad in the Gold Division of the 2019 Joe Piane Invite and a 23rd-place outing from the UVU women in the Blue Division. The UVU men won the Gold Division in 2019 with 86 team points and were led by two-time WAC Athlete of the Year Kevin Lynch by placing fourth, followed by current Wolverines Geofrey Kemboi in sixth, Britain Reynolds in 11th and Hawk Call in 14th. 
 
After the UVU women won the Gold Division in 2018, the women's squad bumped up to the Blue Division in 2019 and the team finished 23rd in the stacked race with 604 points. Current Wolverines Maggie Zwahlen and Mazzie Melaney Preston led the way by finishing 98th and 105th, respectively.  
 
REGIONALLY RANKED
The UVU women again moved up another spot in this week's USTFCCCA Mountain Region poll, as the women's squad now finds itself ranked sixth in the stacked region. The UVU men remain ranked ninth at the Mountain Region.
 
ON DECK FOR UVU
The Wolverines will continue a busy stretch by heading south on I-15 to take part at the SUU Color Country Invitational in Cedar City on Saturday, Oct. 9. Following the Color Country Invite, UVU will head to the Sunshine State to compete at the FSU Invite/Pre-Nationals on Friday, Oct. 15 in Tallahassee, Florida.