Oct. 16, 2009

The Lamar men's and women's cross country teams will compete in the NCAA Pre-National Invitational on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center on Saturday.

The races will be the final tune-ups for each squad before the Southland Conference Championship, held Oct. 31 in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Lamar's group of eight men will be running in the White Race at 10:40 a.m. Central time with 34 other teams. The Blue Race will begin at 10 a.m. CT with 35 teams.

"We will be racing against a great field and we have talked a lot as a group about being more aggressive and trusting our fitness," Lamar cross country coach Jake Stewart said. "We just need to get into the race and let it take our guys around. We don't want to be sitting back on our heels."

Stewart also applauded the work of his team since running at the Wisconsin adidas Invitational two weeks ago.

"We have had two very good weeks of training and have trained with a purpose," he said. "There has been a renewed focus with the guys group that is good to see and we need to carry it over to Saturday."

The 8k course is the same one that will host the NCAA Championship in five weeks.

The Lamar women's team will also have the opportunity to get in another strong race against a tough field in preparation for the SLC meet.

The youthful squad of seven Lady Cardinals will compete in the 6k Open race at 1:10 p.m. CT.

"For the women, this will be an opportunity to be exposed to another big race with a lot of people around you while understanding that we can compete and be successful. They have been training pretty hard as well and we want to see where we are at."

A total of 147 teams including eight of the top 10 nationally ranked men's teams and seven of the top 10 nationally ranked women's teams will be competing on Saturday.