Coming off successful showings at the Crimson Classic two weeks ago, the Mississippi State Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs return to action Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational. The event will be held at the Notre Dame Golf Course in South Bend, Ind.
“We look forward to running in one of the biggest cross country meets in the country,” men’s head coach Steve Dudley said. “We use this meet as a measuring stick to see where we’re at.”
At the Classic, junior Travis McKay led the men’s team for the second consecutive meet, finishing the 8K course in less than 25 minutes at 20.15 and taking fifth overall. The Bulldogs took second place at the event behind Alabama.
“In many ways, this meet is really where our season starts,” McKay said. “We’ve had two meets already, but they were much smaller in size and competition depth.”
The Notre Dame Invitational has no shortage of good teams competing. The Bulldogs will be running against three SEC opponents, including highly-touted Alabama, as well as Florida and Kentucky.
Led by top-ranked Wisconsin, four other national Top 20-ranked teams will race in the meet – sixth-ranked Notre Dame, seventh-ranked Arizona, No. 14 Michigan and No. 18 Florida State.
Although the season is still young, the men’s team has seen one of its more-productive campaigns thus far. The squad captured top honors for the first time since 1995 in the Belmont Opener earlier in the month before coming in second in Tuscaloosa, Ala., two weeks ago.
McKay is confident the team’s early success has helped prepare them for this more competitive meet.
“We’ve run really well in the first two meets this season,” McKay said, “Which has been good because we’re going to need to run our best against the much higher level of competition at Notre Dame. If we run well, we can compete with these teams, but we really need to run hard.”
The Men’s Blue Division course consists of an approximate 8K run, which translates to exactly five miles. McKay is looking to complete the course in less than 25 minutes.
“I’m really looking forward to the race,” he said of his first true test of the season. “I’m going to try and score well up front to help out the team.”
Wade Martin, an MSU transfer, will be running for the first time for the Bulldogs after clearing NCAA eligibility.
The Notre Dame meet will match the Lady Bulldogs up with six teams ranked in the FinishLynx NCAA Division I Cross Country poll – fourth-ranked Notre Dame, No. 13 Wake Forest, 19th-ranked Arkansas and Butler, No. 22 Michigan State and No. 23 Missouri.
Florida and Vanderbilt, two other respectable SEC women’s cross country teams, will also be participating.
“We’re jumping into the frying pan at this meet,” said women’s head coach Al Schmidt. “This is a tough one.”
Freshman Michelle Corrigan led State for the second consecutive race at the Classic. The Green Bay, Wis., native completed the 5K course in 17:50.84.
McKay wasn’t shy in emphasizing the importance of the meet.
“Every year, this is our first real big race and big test,” he said. “Having a good meet this weekend will really be a springboard for us to have a great season.”