MSU ready for season's home meet

When the cross country team competed in the Jeff Drenth Memorial 5K two weeks ago, it was looking for an idea of how competitive it will be this year.

“You really want to get an idea of the depth we have, how we’re going to act in competition, and I thought we performed pretty well,” director of cross country and track and field Walt Drenth said.

Now, with the Spartan Invitational looming Friday as the team’s first scored event and only home meet, the runners will get a better look at where they stand as a team.

The invitational will consist of around 10-15 collegiate teams and thousands of high school runners, but is really a tune-up for what’s to come.

“Our win-loss record or how we run during the season is a little less relevant to how we perform in conference, regionals and nationals,” Drenth said.

With the women’s team finishing fifth at nationals last year, the senior-laden team has high expectations.

“The past year we lost Big Tens by a point, and we missed being a trophy team at nationals by one place,” senior Sarah Price said. “We’re definitely trying to make a turnaround and those are all the things we’re shooting for.”

The men’s team, which failed to qualify for nationals, is looking to an experienced team to be competitive.

“As a team, we’re just hoping to run really well,” junior Max Goldak said. “We want to make it to nationals, be a top-20, top-15 team.”