X-country hopes to continue success

Clark Jessop

After an impressive outing at Stanford last weekend, the men’s and women’s cross country teams travel to South Bend, Ind., this weekend to take on many of the best teams in the nation at the Notre Dame Invitational.

Last weekend, the men’s team placed second of 26 teams competing. Meanwhile, the women placed fifth out of 25 teams.

The only team to place ahead of the men’s team was tournament host Stanford, which is ranked No. 2 in the nation. Three of the four teams to place ahead of the women were ranked in the top 25 in the nation as well.

Last week’s results leave the Aggies with reason to be optimistic for this weekend’s tournament.

The men’s team is extremely strong. All five of last week’s runners counted for the team score finishing in the top 25.

Dusan Hlubocky, a junior from Bratislave, Slovakia, finished second last week and was only 26 seconds behind champion Teren Jamison of the University of Utah.

The women’s team is led by senior Shae Messersmith. Messersmith finished 24th last weekend to pace the lady Aggies.

Head coach Gregg Gensel said he looks forward to competing in the Notre Dame tournament this weekend, which includes many of the best teams in the nation last year.

“We’ll use Notre Dame as a proving ground to see where we’re really at,” he said.

Following this weekend’s road trip, USU will host its only home meet of the season next weekend at the Logan River golf course, the Utah State Invitational. The meet is slated to start at 4:30 p.m.