Baylor Cross Country Ready for Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational - KXXV Central Texas News Now

Baylor's cross country teams head north to run in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, hosted by Notre Dame, at Burke Golf Course in South Bend, Ind., Friday afternoon.

The meet consists of three different races: blue, open and gold. The Bears will compete in the blue races, beginning with the women’s 5,000-meter race at 2 p.m. CT, followed by the men’s 5-mile race at 2:45 p.m. CT.

The Bears have opportunity to climb into the national rankings for the first time this season as the women’s team is receiving votes in the latest poll.Twenty men’s and women’s teams at Friday’s meet are either ranked or receiving votes, including: No. 1 Colorado (women), No. 3 New Mexico (women), No. 4 Colorado (men), No. 7 NC State (women), No. 9 Arkansas (women), No. 11 Washington State (men), No. 12 Notre Dame (women), No. 13 Southern Utah (men), No. 26 Ohio State (women), No. 27 Utah (women) and No. 30 NC State (men).

The women’s team is coming off a first-place finish at the Ken Garland Invitational on Sept. 16, edging host North Texas for the team title, 38-39. While two of Baylor’s top runners sat out during the last meet, the entire team will travel to Notre Dame this Friday.

“It looks like it’s going to be a great meet up there with great competition on both sides,” head coach Todd Harbour said. “The women ran really well up there last year, and I think our men will be a lot better this year. They know what to expect. (Last year) really helped them a lot. It’s a golf course, so you’ve got to get out fast and be ready for it. We’ll see how many quality teams we can beat.”

The men’s team is also coming off a Ken Garland Invitational team title as the Bears won the meet for the second-straight year. Sophomore Devin Meyrer led the way to finish second in Denton. All team members will travel to Notre Dame as well.

“We’ll have our work cut out for us, but we’re excited to have everyone racing at full strength on a fast course,” assistant head coach Jon Capron said. “Hopefully the weather helps out a little bit. We’re excited about it not being 85 and humid. We’ve got people from out of town to race and people from right down the road to race, so we’re excited to see how it’ll all shake up. We should be ready to go.”

Last season, Maggie Montoya's fourth-place individual finish helped the women's team take fifth overall at the Notre Dame Invitational. Lindsey Bradley placed 11th, Peyton Thomas finished 22nd, and Anna West and Gabby Satterlee rounded out the top five runners for BU.

The five-runner total score of 169 was just three behind third-ranked New Mexico's 166 point total for fourth and two points ahead of No. 28 Utah's 171 points for sixth. BU's top-four runner total of 75 was 12 points better than winner and No. 1 ranked team Providence (87).

The men's team was 19th with Eric Anderson (77th) and Devin Meyrer (79th) leading the Bears over the file-mile course. Matt League finished 118th, while Matt Parham (147th) and Jordan West (156th) were the final two scoring runners for BU.