The BYU Cross Country Invitational will be held at the Cascade Golf Course in Orem at 6 p.m. today.
The men’s team race will be four miles, while the women will race in a 5K.
The BYU teams will race against Idaho State, University of Utah and San Bernardino Valley College.
The men’s team has been preparing by getting used to the conditions the race will have.
“We’ve been doing a lot of runs on grass and workouts at Kiwanis Park,” said men’s head coach Ed Eyestone. “We have done some quality workouts on grassy hills as well.”
However, senior Miles Batty said he does not think their training has been altered much to prepare for this meet.
“We are doing our normal training,” Batty said. “We will continue to train through it in preparation for the rest of the season.”
For the men’s team, this race will determine who will be racing the rest of the year.
“We are going to run everybody because this will determine the 12 travelers,” Eyestone said. “We also have a number of walk-ons trying to make the team and we will decide who will make it.”
Women’s head coach Patrick Shane said he is going to rely heavily on his younger runners for this race.
“We are not going to run our top seven still,” Shane said. “We are able to put the athlete that needs experience in a situation where they need to get the job done.”
Shane also said he thinks by doing this the younger runners will have a boost in their confidence and believes they have enough to win the meet because the team has talented younger runners.
Even though both teams believe they can win the meet, each knows there will be challenges.
The men’s team wants to perform well without overdoing it and forgetting it has more important races in the future.
“The toughest challenge will be to get another solid race under our belts and make sure we have trained properly without over training,” Eyestone said.
Batty said he knows the team must not make itself too tired during this race.
“In the past we have gone too hard at our first meets,” Batty said. “It is the second invitational, but it doesn’t mean too much yet. It is a warm-up meet.”
The women’s team’s toughest challenge will be running the younger runners and having them believe in themselves.
“The key will be to get younger runners to go in and be excited and allow themselves to perform rather than doubt themselves,” Shane said.
Batty said he is looking forward to being with his team through the race.
“We should be able to run together as a team, which will be nice,” Batty said.
