CEDAR CITY, Utah - After a weekend of competition spanning the country the Thunderbird cross country teams will host the Color Country Invitational this weekend at the Cedar Ridge Golf Course in their lone home event on the schedule.

Last Time Out

Both the men's and women's team found success last weekend, with the men's squad finishing sixth at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational and the women's team finishing second at the Capital Cross Challenge in Sacramento.

Kasey Knevelbaard was the top finisher for the men, finishing the Invitational in 12th place with a time of 24:00.0 on the 8K course. Knevelbaard has been the top finisher for SUU in every race he's ran in this season.

Despite really good finishes the past couple weekends, SUU head coach Eric Houle said the team is very close to having a breakthrough performance.

“I felt really good about it, we just need to take care of the issues like falling and getting sick and things that sometimes you don't have control over,” he said.

On the women's side Angie Nickerson continued her impressive season, with a fifth place finish in Sacramento that helped lead the team to a second place finish overall.

Houle said he left the meet in Sacramento thrilled with what the women's team accomplished.

“I think our women's team is performing at a level that we haven't seen for the last couple years,” he said.

Color Country Preview

The Thunderbirds will host their annual Color Country Invitational this Saturday, with the top squad on both the men's and women's side set to compete.

Houle said it's always a good time for the teams to be able to run the meet at home, and will provide a week where they can train really hard looking forward to the meets coming up.

“To be here and have them run in front of their home town is going to be cool, it's going to be fun,” he said. “We're going to work on some things like trying to run more as a pack.”

The course will be set up just like the Big Sky Conference Championships were last year, creating a spectator friendly environment for those attending the competition.

The women's race is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, followed by the men's race that is scheduled for 10:45 a.m.

The event is free of charge for Thunderbird fans wanting to come and support.

Scheduled Competitors (as of 10/6/2016):

Idaho State

Utah Valley

Dixie State

National Rankings

Men's Team: Receiving Votes in the USTFCCCA Coaches' Poll

Regional Rankings

Men's Team: No. 6 in the Mountain Region

Women's Team: No. 13 in the Mountain Region

Athletes of the Week

Big Sky Conference Athletes of the Week:

Week 1: Kasey Knevelbaard (1st @ Sagebrush Invitational)

Week 3: Kasey Knevelbaard (9th @ Roy Griak)

Week 4: Kasey Knevelbaard (12th @ Notre Dame)

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