TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Sycamore men's and women's cross country teams will head down to Louisville this Saturday to compete at the 2017 adidas Pre-Nationals at 'Tom' Sawyer State Park.
 
The men, after a strong performance at the Notre Dame Invitational, will be competing in the Red Seeded 8K race at 10 a.m. EST. Led by junior Akis Medrano and sophomore Seth Cousins, the Sycamores will face some of the nation's best, including No. 2 BYU, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 7 Colorado and No. 8 Oregon.
 
At the Notre Dame Invite, Cousins led the way with a 5 mile (8K) time of 25:55.6, which was eighth in the field. Following Cousins was Medrano who crossed the line at 25:26.0, good enough for 24th. Ryan Cash and Blake Kramer were the only other Sycamores in the top-50 at 27th and 31st respectively.
 
"Coming over a very solid team performance at Notre Dame Invitational, the men are excited to be accepted into the elite section of the Pre-National Meet," head coach Kyle Walsh said. "It will be a tall task lining up against four of the top 10 teams in the NCAA as well as many top programs flying in from around the country. The guys are ready for challenge and it will be important to stay engaged in the large crowd of opponents working together through the middle stages of the race. Seth Cousins and Akis Medrano have flip flopped positions leading the squad as our top performers and look to keep that momentum rolling this weekend. Our pack right behind them continues to impress me and we're looking forward to toeing the line with some top level competition."
 
Sophomore Ryan Kritzer and freshmen Kyle Collins and Isaac Bentz will run in the men's Black 8K race at 11:30 a.m., following the conclusion of the women's Red 6K race.
 
The Sycamore women, led by senior Taylor Austin, will compete with 67 teams in the women's Black 6K race at 12:15 p.m. Southern Illinois from the Missouri Valley Conference will also run in the women's Black race.
 
"The women will run in the unseeded race where we placed 12th last year. The ladies are extremely excited to bounce back from a somewhat disappointing team score at the Notre Dame Invitational," Walsh said. "Workouts have been great and we like the 6 kilometer distance so I'm confident we will respond well and put ourselves in position earlier in the race compared to two weeks ago. Our senior leader, Taylor Austin, has led us in every meet so far and will be running with the lead pack on Saturday. I really like our chase pack and we plan to use each other throughout the race and swing momentum back on our side heading into the MVC Championships in two weeks."
 
In her return to her native region, Austin placed sixth at the Notre Dame Invite with a time of 17:25.8 over the 5K course. The only time she has ever covered a 5K course faster came in 2015 at the same meet when her time was about five seconds faster. She led the way for the Sycamores against a stacked field. Alli Workman rounded out the top-50 for the Sycamores, taking 50th place at 18:17.9.
 
For the third time since 2012, the University of Louisville will host the Pre-National Invitational, a yearly preview of the NCAA Championship course for the best men's and women's collegiate cross country runners in the nation.
 
The races will be streamed live on FloTrack's subscription service.
 
Here is a look at the complete race schedule:
10:00 a.m. EST - Men's Red 8K
10:45 a.m. EST - Women's Red 6K
11:30 a.m. EST - Men's Black 8K
12:15 p.m. EST - Women's Black 6K
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Track and Field team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.