WASHINGTON – Director of Track & Field / Cross Country Julie Culley and Head Men's Cross Country Coach Brandon Bonsey announced the women's and men's schedules for the upcoming 2019 cross country season. The women will compete in seven meets and the men will compete in eight meets during the 2019 campaign over the course of the three-month season.
"The women's team enters the season as a talented and ambitious group," Culley said. "We gained a lot of experience from the 2018 season and have a lot of excitement heading into this fall with high expectations of ourselves. Our schedule offers us opportunities to face off with national caliber competition in the regular season at the Wisconsin Invitational and a course preview of the NCAA Regional meet at the Paul Short Invitational. Preseason begins this weekend and we are thrilled to get together and kick off the year."
Both squads will open the season on Friday, August 30 in Emmitsburg, Maryland at the Mount Saint Mary's Duels, hosted by Mount Saint Mary's.
"I couldn't be more excited for the men to get the season started," Bonsey said of the men's schedule. "The team has been working hard this summer and I can't wait to get the group back together next week. I think this schedule will prepare us for the postseason quite well. The major change is going to the Notre Dame meet on October 4. I felt we needed to face a national caliber field earlier in the year and Notre Dame offered that. I think facing a field of that caliber early in the season will help prepare us for what we will see in the postseason. We return a great group and brought in an elite freshman class so my expectations for this fall are high."
Two weeks after the first meet of the season, both teams will travel to the Penn State Spiked Shoe Invitational on Friday, September 13. The trip to Pennsylvania will be the first of three visits for both squads, but it will be the only trip to State College.
Following a three-week break, the men will compete in South Bend, Indiana at the Joe Piane Invitational on Friday, October 4. After a quick turnaround for the men, both teams will meet up at the Paul Short Invitational in Lehigh, Pennsylvania on Saturday, October 5. The meet will be an early challenge for both squads, as it is set to feature many top cross country programs from around the country. The course will serve as a preview for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championships, held later in the season in November.
Both teams will make the first of two journeys to Wisconsin on Friday, October 18 to compete in Madison at the Wisconsin Invitational. The meet will be the last opportunity for the men and women to gear up for the postseason, which will begin two weeks later at the BIG EAST Championships in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Saturday, November 2.
The NCAA Regional Championships will take both squads back to Lehigh on Friday, November 15. The Mid-Atlantic region will get a pair of automatic berths to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championships, slated for Saturday, November 23 at the LaVern Gibson course in Terre Haute, Indiana.
