CEDAR CITY, Utah - Sept. 13 - SUU Cross Country will continue its Big Sky inaugural season as the teams travel to Riverside, Calif., for the annual UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 15. This season marks the ninth consecutive year the Thunderbirds will have competed in Riverside, with the men finishing first and the women placing third in 2011.

“The reason we always return to Riverside is that the course never changes,” head coach Eric Houle said. “It is a great opportunity to measure where we stand as a squad compared to previous seasons. It's also a great chance for the athletes to start racing after weeks of training.”

The men's squad broke it's way into Southern Utah's course records at Riverside, with six athletes recording top ten marks. Clinton Rhoton, Nate Jewkes, Elijah Rono and John Hart are among those record holders returning this season, and Rhoton, Rono and Hart were also on the squad that, two weeks ago, recorded a perfect score at Idaho State with a gap time of less than 30 seconds. Jewkes led a separate Southern Utah squad with a second-place finish at Northern Arizona that same weekend.

Last season marked the first women's 6k Southern Utah raced in at UC Riverside, and the women finished third and recorded a gap of about 70 seconds. Jamie Smith, Armarose Bailey and Ashley Gray return after scoring for the T-Birds last year. Lizzy Butler and Sylvia Bedford will also compete at Riverside after leading the T-Birds with first- and second-place finishes at Idaho State and Northern Arizona respectively.

Following the UC Riverside Invite, the T-Birds will take another two-week break before traveling to Eugene, Ore. for the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Sept. 29. Southern Utah will then host the only home meet of the season, the Color Country Invitational, in Cedar City on Oct. 6.