MANHATTAN, Kan. The Kansas State cross country teams will travel north this Saturday, Sept. 17 to compete in the Woody Greeno Invitational held at Pioneer’s Park in Lincoln, Neb. The women’s 6K race is scheduled to get underway at 10 a.m., followed by the men’s 10K race at 10:45 a.m.

K-State will see a number of competitive teams this weekend including Air Force, Nebraska, South Dakota State, Wichita State, Wyoming, Missouri, and Northern Iowa. Coach Michael Smith says he’s ready to see his teams compete at the higher level.

“There will be a number of more competitive teams at this meet, as well as a number of more competitive athletes,” said Smith. “On the women’s side, we try to get closer to running our full lineup every weekend if we’re all healthy. With nearly a full lineup this weekend, I expect to run better than we have. On the men’s side, we’re going to change things up a little. From what I saw last weekend at the (K-State/KU) Dual, I have good expectations for our men’s team.”

This is the third race for the Wildcats in as many weeks. Fatigue shouldn’t be a problem though, as many of the runners haven’t competed in all of the races thus far. The schedule was set up for this very reason, according to Smith.

“With such young teams on both the men’s and women’s sides, we wanted to create more racing opportunities early on in the season. Most of the women have the opportunity to run in each of the first three races if they are able to do so. For the men, we usually pick who will race each week. With the short distances in the first two races, it isn’t as much of a drain on the men.”

Ben DeLay, a redshirt freshman, will be making a trip home this weekend. DeLay, a native of Bellevue, Neb., has competed on the course at Pioneer’s Park during his high school career.

Results of the Woody Greeno Invitational will be posted following the event at www.k-statesports.com.