After two weeks off, the Iowa cross-country is ready to hit the ground running at the Joe Piane-Notre Dame Invitational today. The meet will have by far the most crowded field sof Iowa’s meets so far, presenting a new challenge for the athletes.

The men’s team finished ninth out of 17 teams at the invitational last year, with Daniel Soto being Iowa’s top runner at 14th. Current senior Nate Mylenek finished 38th, keeping a steady mile pace of 4:56. With some of its runners scoring in the in the 80th place or higher, the team wants to have more runners placing near the front of the pack this year.

Mylenek will be expected to lead the pack once again for the Hawkeyes, with a top-10 finish a real possibility. Expect to see other seniors such as Daniel Murphy and Brandon Cooley help lead the Hawkeyes and crack the top 50.

Another factor in the race is that it will be 5 miles, longer than the previous 6K (3.73 miles) and 8K (4.97 miles) races.

That may help some of the older runners who are used to running longer distances. For the younger runners, the race will be a good chance to gauge their progress on distances thus far.

Although the athletes may endure difficult training at the moment, the fitness levels of the athletes are improving exponentially to get ready to run the longer distances.

“Both sides are more improved,” said head coach Randy Hasenbank. “They are more fit, and it guarantees you no success, but the fact that they are all fit shows that they’re dedicated to what they’re trying to accomplish,”

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The women’s race is a 5K, 1K off the Big Ten race distance. In last year’s meet, the women finished seventh. Although that squad’s top runner, Andrea Shine, graduated, the Hawkeyes will have more depth to help move further up the standings.

Megan Schott will try to improve on her 30th place finish last year, and sophomore Anna Hosteler finished 41st. Freshman Leah Kralovetz will attempt to continue her hot start, The Wisconsin native has continued her difficult training the past few weeks.

“I have been training hard and have felt the effects of this over the past week, so for tomorrow I plan on just seeing how the race unfolds and how I’m feeling,” she said.

The team got a preview of the course, located on the Burke Golf Course. The course is considerably flatter than the previous ones, so the harriers will shoot to hit personal bests.

The women’s race will start at noon, The men will begin 45 minutes later.