Almost as quietly as the runners creep up on their competition, the ASU men's and women's cross country season has arrived.
The Sun Devils plan on putting a strong finish from last year to good use. They are counting on a schedule that will pay big dividends and will help carry them to another successful season.
"The meets I put on the schedule are either there to give some of the runners a chance for development or to prepare our elite group for the conference, regional and national meets," ASU head coach Walt Drenth said. "Our primary responsibility is to compete well as a group at the championship meets. We have a schedule that will give us a good idea early of what we need to work on so we will be better prepared at the end of the year."
The Sun Devils will open the season Friday at the Adidas Cross Country Invitational in South Bend, Ind. Both the men's and women's teams marked second-place finishes in last year's event.
ASU will then travel to Minneapolis for the Roy Griak Invitational, where the women's team claimed the top spot in 2001. The Sun Devils will host two of three October meets — the Canyon West Invitational (Oct. 5) and the Arizona State Invitational (Oct. 11) — at Kiwanis Park in Tempe.
ASU will partake in the NCAA Pre Nationals on Oct. 19 in Terre Haute, Ind. The Sun Devils are slated to close out the season at the Pac-10 Championships (Nov. 2, Pasadena, Calif.) and NCAA West Regionals (Nov. 16, Palo Alto, Calif.).
The NCAA Championships will be held Nov. 25 in Terre Haute. The men's and women's teams both finished in the top 25 last season.
Climbing the charts: The men's team was tabbed at the No. 13 spot in the preseason MONDO/USCCO poll, which was released Aug. 27.
Reach the reporter at katie.crane@asu.edu.