Cross country travels to Notre Dame Invite

The men's and women\'s cross country teams travel to Notre Dame tomorrow in a pivotal meet for their season.\nSince the Notre Dame invitational will feature top teams such as Stanford, North Carolina State, Arizona and Duke, both teams are putting extra pressure on themselves to compete at a higher level.\nWomen's coach Judy Bogenschutz said to "prove themselves" and get a chance for a bid to NCAA Nationals, the women must place at least 8th in the meet. She expects No. 1 Stanford, No. 5 N.C. State, No. 13 Michigan and No. 15 Arizona to be strong contenders for the top places.\nThe high-caliber competition will make up for the "very fast, flat course," Bogenschutz said.\n"On this course, (the runners) really have to be up there," she said. "They have to take a risk. They have to hit the time at the 3K mark that they don\'t think they can do." \nJunior Stephanie Magley expressed the team\'s goals simply.\n"There are a lot of teams we need to beat to be able to go to nationals," Magley said.\nThe men's team will also chase teams ranked in the top 25 in the nation. Although this meet is important to their season, the men are looking even farther ahead.\nSenior Dan Billish has faith in the men\'s team.\n"The first meet proved to us that we're a really deep, strong team. Our next focus after Notre Dame is Big Tens," Billish said.\nThe Notre Dame invitational will provide both teams with practice for upcoming meets in the season, since a large number of teams from IU\'s region will be competing. Placing well against these teams will give both the men and the women confidence for the Big Ten championship meet Oct. 29.