Meet Preview: Teams Will Test Their Ranking At Roy Griak Invitational

The University of Minnesota men’s and women’s cross country teams are set to welcome some good early season competition to the 38th annual Roy Griak Invitational this Friday at Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, Minn.

The Utah Valley women, ranked No. 25 in the recent USTFCCCA National Coaches Poll, are coming off a solid showing at the BYU Autumn Classic on Sept. 13 in Provo, Utah. The Wolverines, led by Oakley Olson’s fifth-place showing, finished second to No. 7 BYU.

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Colorado State, which received votes in the recent National Coaches’ Poll, is the top team back from last year’s gold race, having finished third with 96 points..

Minnesota, seeking its first Roy Griak title since 2021, is ranked fourth in the Midwest Region rankings and may have the individual favorite in Erin Reidy, the Big Ten runner-up in the 1500 meters last spring.

“We’re really excited to see what we’ve got,” Reidy said. “We did have a younger team last year and we’ve had a chance to build and now that we’re coming into our own we’re really excited to see what we can do this week.”

Santa Clara, the highest finishing team from last year’s men’s race, will be in the 8-kilometer field that starts the day at 10 a.m. CT. The Broncos scored 148 points to finish sixth in last year’s team standings. The women’s 6k follows at 10:45 a.m.

Wyoming, Colorado State, Minnesota and South Dakota State are other returning teams that finished inside the top-10 in last year’s race, with the Cowboys finishing seventh, the Rams in eighth and the Gophers in ninth and the Jackrabbits in tenth.

Colorado State and Minnesota are the only other programs racing in this year’s meet that have won the team title on the men’s side at Roy Griak. Colorado State won in 2017, and Minnesota won in 2012.

The four college races are split up by division. The gold races are made up of schools from the NCAA DI level and the maroon races are for NCAA DII and NCAA DIII programs.

The men’s maroon race follows at 11:30 a.m. CT and the women’s maroon race at 12:15 p.m. CT.

The UC-Colorado Springs men, No. 20 in the NCAA DII National Coaches’ Poll, are looking to win their first Roy Griak title since 2012 in the maroon race after finishing fifth in last year’s field.

The Augustana (South Dakota) women, No. 4 nationally, are eying a third Roy Griak title in five years in the maroon race.