Men's and women's cross country will race this Friday in the Cavalier Open at Panorama Farms, just north of the campus of the University of Virginia.? Both teams are coming off the CAA Championships last weekend and will use this weekend to rest some of their top performers, while at the same time hoping to progress some of the younger runners on the team.

"One of the difficulties when you get to the championship season in cross country is that you drop roster numbers fairly low in terms of who actually gets to race," said Head Coach Andrew Gerard.? "This is really a race that is for the physical development and the future development of some of those guys we hope to lead us in a few years."

With the majority of the women's team being freshman, Associate Head Coach Sita Waru-Ewell will race nearly her entire team on Friday.? "The goal for this race is to help get the girls' confidence back up," said Ewell.? "A lot of the girls, especially the freshman, have raced this course in high school so hopefully that will help them relax."

Last weekend the men finished second in the CAA Championships to William and Mary.? "We had three guys make All-Conference," reflected Gerard.? "We're going to regroup for regionals.? CAA's was a big test for us but it wasn't the final exam and it certainly isn't the end of the class for us.? Our workouts have been the best set of workouts up to this point that I've seen for any team since I've been here.? We certainly have an ample opportunity for redemption coming up."

The women will also look to regroup in the Cavalier Open before a few of the women move on to the regional race a week later.? "The course will be challenging this week; it has a lot of hills and can be compared in some ways to our home course.? But I think we will be okay because we have raced their before and the girls are not going in blindsided," concluded Ewell.

The race is set to begin on Friday at 4pm with the men's 8000m, followed at its conclusion by the women's 5000m race.