AT A GLANCE

SAN FRANCISCO – The Dons head to Minnesota to compete in the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota. This annual tournament is held at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, Minn. on Sept. 23.
 
The women's cross country team heads into the meet ranked sixth in the nation by the USTFCCCA. Other nationally ranked schools racing along side the Dons in the 6K course will include Michigan State, Iowa State and hosts Minnesota.
 
For the men who sit in 11^th in the NCAA West Region poll, the Griak will provide them the opportunity to compete against nationally ranked sides Iowa State, Colorado State, UCLA and Michigan State.
 
The USF men's team will kick off at 8:20 a.m. (PT) during the Merrill Fischbein Men's Gold Competition (Division I) and the women will go next at 9:10 a.m. (PT) for the Jack Johnson Women's Gold Competition (Division I). To follow the races live, FloTrack will be live streaming the whole event here.
 
Head coach Helen Lehman-Winters:
 
On competing at the Roy Griak Invitational:
"Both squads are in a great spot as we roll into this weekend's competition. We have had a solid and consistent block of training since our invite and we look forward to testing our fitness against some nationally ranked teams. The Griak is a challenging course so both teams will need to get out strong but then be disciplined with the pace early so they can be tough in the back end."


On racing against nationally ranked opponents:
"It is always nice to get out of the west and see how we match up against teams from other regions. This will provide us with a good benchmark of where we are right now and what we need to continue to work on as a team as we enter the month of October."
 
 
QUICK HITS

• Charlotte Taylor will compete in her first competitive race of the season, after sitting out the USF Invitational three weeks ago. Also competing in her first race of the season will be senior Marie Bouchard. The pair will look to add to the team's dominant performance at the USF Invitational.
• Junior Weronika Pyzik will be hoping to build off her first-place finish at the USF Invitational. Pyzik led the field with a time of 21:31.7.
• Joining Pyzik will be the trio, Isabelle Brauer, Lizzie Bird, and Lea Meyer, that finished the USF Invitational just after Pyzik.
• On the men's side, Mohamed Aziz and Jack Rowe will be racing for the Dons in their second competitive meet of the season. The two placed one-two at the USF Invitational, although Rowe competed unattached at the event. Aziz finished with a time of 25:20.95 and Rowe finished at 25:27.32.
• Ben Alcock will be amongst the leading pack as well. The senior from Bedford, England finished fourth at the USF Invitational, just behind his fellow Dons, Aziz and Rowe.
• Making his debut as a Don will be graduate student Jacob Allen. He comes to USF with a lot of experience, having competed in the 2016 World University Cross Country Championships, as well as the European Cross Country Championships.