CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Arizona Cross Country travels to Charlottesville this weekend for the UVA XC 23 Invitational hosted by the University of Virginia on Saturday. This highly competitive meet serves as a Pre-Nationals competition, as Virginia will host the NCAA Cross Country Championships at the same course in November.
 
"The Pre-Nationals competition is a competition we heavily targeted when we were planning out this season," said Head Coach Bernard Lagat. "It will be the most competitive meet we have had thus far. It will give the team a taste of the big race, where we hope to be strong competitors very soon. Last year was a little too soon for the men since they were almost all freshmen, but this year they'll be able to experience what it's like at Nationals and know what they need to do to take the next step at the national level."
 
The competition will be held at Panorama Farms and allows teams the opportunity to preview the course prior to the NCAA Championships. Due to the high volume of competing teams, both the men's and women's races are broken up into two sections: the Blue Race (Championship) and the Orange Race (B). The Arizona Men will be competing in the Blue Race 8k at 6:40 a.m. MST, and the Arizona Women will be running in the 6k Orange Race at 8:00 a.m. MST. Results from the entire morning of competition can be found here.
 
Arizona's most recent competition was their home meet, the Dave Murray Invitational, which took place at the Randolph Golf Course in Tucson at the end of September. At the meet, the Arizona Men placed second with a season-low score of 42, and the Arizona Women took fourth. On the men's side, all five scoring runners finished in the top 15 of the 8k. They were led by Iker Sanchez Lopez, who finished first for the team for the second straight competition. He placed fifth overall and was followed by his brother, Ian Sanchez Lopez, who placed sixth and Cooper Quigley, who placed 10th. For the women, Sailor Hutton finished first for the team in the 6k, which she has done at all three of their meets so far this year. She ended in 14th place overall and was followed by freshman Sorcha Shiu who placed 18th. The Arizona Women also got scoring contributions from two Arizona triathletes: Kelly Wetteland and Dana Prikrylova.
 
Lagat added, "The Arizona men's team will probably be one of the youngest teams at the competition, but don't mistake them for being inexperienced.  They've prepared very well to get to this big stage. Iker Sanchez Lopez has been leading the team this year and Michael Urbanski has surprised us with his high scoring as a freshman. He has trained very well coming into his first year and I see great things coming from him."
 
On the women's side, Lagat stated, "Sailor Hutton is consistently leading the team and I don't expect anything to change there. Alisa Lyesina has stepped up very well too, gaining a strong cross country base in preparation for a big track year. Sorcha Shiu will be running in her third collegiate race, which will be a good experience for her to see the teams she'll continue to be battling against in her career. From triathlon, Molly Lakustiak will be making her collegiate debut in cross country and it will be an exciting time for her and the team to line up together in such a big meet."
 
Entering the competition, the Arizona Men are ranked 11th in the West Region in the USTFCCCA's Regional Rankings. Additionally, the Wildcats did not compete in a Pre-Nationals competition last season.
 
A meet recap will be posted to ArizonaWildcats.com detailing the competition results. Live updates will also be posted to @ArizonaTrack on Twitter.
 
RUNNERS
MEN
Brennan Foody, Andrew Gibby, Noah Jodon, Gibson Kibia, Cooper Quigley, Ian Sanchez Lopez, Iker Sanchez Lopez, Michael Urbanski
 
WOMEN
Sailor Hutton, Molly Lakustiak (Triathlon), Alisa Lyesina, Johnnie Mitchell, Sage Patzer, Sorcha Shiu
 
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