Texas A&M cross country will run at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Friday Oct. 2 in its first race away from home.

The Aggies will compete in the Blue Division with the women’s race starting at 2:00 p.m. and the men’s at 2:45 p.m. Karis Jochen and the Aggie women will face 22 teams running 5,000m while Austin Wells and the men’s team will battle 21 teams over 8,000m.

Both teams will see how they stack up against a higher field of runners. The men’s race will have six nationally ranked teams while the women’s race features four teams. Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven explains how the Aggies will be tested.

“The level of competition increases each meet for us,” said McRaven. “We’ve been running well at home, now we’ll see if that translates to another meet on the road.”

Junior Karis Jochen will be challenged as she comes off an impressive win at the Texas A&M Invitational. The women’s team will fight against New Mexico, nationally ranked No 1, North Carolina State (14th), Notre Dame (20th) and Vanderbilt (22nd).

Austin Wells said he hopes to improve from his personal best 23:42.9 time averaging 4:48 mile at the Texas A&M Invite. Other runners including Cameron Villarreal will be back to full health heading into this Friday’s meet.

The race at Notre Dame should make for an interesting race as A&M strive to improve from 4th place at the Dale Watts Cross Country course last Saturday.

For the Blue Division, New Mexico is also the highest ranking men’s team at No. 17 followed by Arizona State (No. 18), Southern Utah (23rd), Colorado State (26th), North Carolina State (27th), and Eastern Kentucky (28th).

Kelsie Warren returns after an injury kept her from running last week. The Aggie women’s team competing also includes Hannah Campbell, Laura Craig, Haley Deakins, Devin Norton, Kelsey Persyn, Katie Pia, Arin Rice, Kaitlin Tanner and Emily Willingham.

On the men’s side, Eli Canal, Christian Farris, Jacob Perry, Alex Riba, Colin Stoeber, Ryan Teel and Cameron Villarreal will run, hoping to bring the title back to College Station.
“The men aim to take home the title at the Notre Dame Friday,” said Riba. “With everyone back and running, we will be contending for the title.”