The University of Minnesota Duluth men's and women's cross country teams will run back into competition Friday morning at the Blugold Invite at the Whitetail Golf Course in Colfax, Wis. The men's varsity race is scheduled to get underway at 9:30 a.m., while the women's varsity race will begin at 10:15 a.m. The men's open race is set to start at 11:00 a.m., and the women's open race at 11:45 a.m. (The Bulldogs will have runners in all four races.)

Friday will mark the first time UMD has competed in the Blugold Invitational since the 2018 season. The men finished seventh out of 29 teams that season, while the women earned a sixth place finish out of 25 teams.

LAST TIME OUT: Two weeks ago (Sept. 19), both teams competed in the 39th Roy Griak Invitational where the women's team ran to a fourth place finish and the men ended up in 14th place. The UMD women's side ran to its best finish in the meet since it won the entire race in 2022. Led by graduate Shaelyn Hostager's 10th place finish in 23:31.1, the Bulldogs had another three runners in the top-22 -- junior Ellie Hanowski in 18th (23:50.4), senior Kira Almsberger in 19th (23:50.5) and senior Elizabeth VanLoon in 22nd (23:57.3). Junior Rachel Ulrich rounded out the top-5 in 51st place with a time of 24:58.0.

Freshman Isaac Dickenson led UMD for a second-straight race with a 50th place finish and time of 27:59.8. Sophomore Connor Bialka was the Bulldogs second scorer in 67th place (28:17.0z), while senior Finn Youberg rounded out the top-three with a time of 29:05.0 and 126th place finish. Senior Issac Martel (127th place, 29:05.6) and sophomore Dylan Taggart (160th, 29:39.2).