One meet is already in the books but Idaho cross country coach Wayne Phipps considers the Sundodger Invitational to be the first real meet of the season.
“We’re always excited about going to this meet,” Phipps said. “We’ve been to this meet every year I think since I’ve been here and so we use this meet as the starting point to our season … This is what we would consider our first real race of the season.”
The Sundodger Invitational is the first full distance meet for the men’s team at 8K and women’s team at 6K. The starting gun sounds at 9 a.m. on Saturday in Seattle.
The Vandals face some tough competition including teams from Washington, Washington State, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, Seattle U and Oregon State.
While most of the team ran in the low-key Northwest Classic on Saturday, Aug. 31, the Sundodger Invitational will be the first meet of the season for senior Hannah Kiser. Kiser was the top Vandal finisher on the women’s side in the 2012 Sundodger Invitational. Her time of 20 minutes, 45.21 seconds was the fastest ever for a Vandal at the meet. Kiser was also the top collegiate finisher in the race.
Sophomore Santos Vargas was the second Vandal to cross the finish line on the men’s side in 2012. Vargas, who finished in 11th among collegiate runners with his time of 24:53.39, is the top returner for the Idaho men’s team this season.
Kiser, Vargas and the other veteran runners can use the Sundodger Invitational as a gauge to compare their times from this year to past years.
“Because we’ve run here a lot, it does give us a pretty good idea of where we are,” Phipps said. “So that’s always an exciting thing as a coach. We’re looking, afterwards, to evaluate to see where we are and what we need to improve upon if there are some things.”
In all, 11 athletes will potentially debut at the 8K distance as Vandals for the first time on the men’s side and eight will debut at 6K on the women’s side at the 2013 Sundodger Invitational. The Vandals’ first meet, the Clash of the Inland Northwest, featured shorter distances of 6K on the men’s side and 4K on the women’s side.
“I’m a little nervous and I don’t really know what to expect because I’m a freshman,” Emma Balazs said. “I’ve just had that one pretty much practice meet two weekends ago so that went pretty good but I’m not really sure what to expect (at Seattle).”
The Sundodger Invitational also offers a flat course and low-elevation meet early in the season. The course and sea-level elevation allow opportunities for fast times and possible personal records. This can be a confidence booster for some of the young runners on the team, especially on the men’s side.
“We’re always training up here at altitude and our first race was at altitude and that was just sort of a tester,” freshman Tim Delcourt said. “This (meet) will really see some time drops and our team altogether do really well I think.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]