There has been a change of schedule for Eastern’s cross country teams.

The Panthers were slated to go to the Oklahoma State Jamboree this weekend and run on the course where the NCAA Midwest Regional will be held later in the season, but head coach Geoff Masanet decided to change those plans.

Now the Panthers are headed to South Bend, Ind., to compete in the Gold Division of the Notre Dame Invite on Friday. The men will run at 1 p.m., with the women following at 1:45 p.m.

Masanet said Notre Dame seemed like a better fit, money and time wise.

“Oklahoma State is just such a long way, nine hours, almost 10, and it is expensive,” Masanet said. “We are happy with our decision to go to Notre Dame, it is going to be a really good meet for us.”

The Notre Dame meet is split into two divisions; the Blue Division, comprised of highly ranked Division I teams, and the Gold Division, which has some Division I teams mixed in with some very strong Division II and III teams.

“If the Notre Dame meet was just the Gold Race, it would still be a very impressive meet,” Masanet said. “There is tough competition across the board. We will really have our hands full.”

Masanet said if he had signed the Panthers up for the meet earlier, he probably could have got the men’s team in the Blue Division, but he is happy with them being in the Gold Division.

“I think our guys could compete in the Blue Race just fine, but they would probably come in like 18th of 25 or something like that, whereas in the Gold Race we are really looking at being in the top five,” Masanet said.

“The expectations going into the weekend are pretty high,” junior Mario Castrejon said. “(Masanet) wants us to basically just go out there and get in position to win it, and if we play our cards right we have the ability to pull it off.”

Masanet said this is the first weekend of the season where the Panthers are going to be running to their full potential without any excuses.

“We have either been a little sick, or banged up, missing people, training through certain meets and all that kind of stuff leading into this weekend,” Masanet said. “None of the meets up to this point have we really put all of our apples into one basket but we have for this meet and we ought to run well.”

Masanet said he thinks going to South Bend early and having the day to prepare for the race will help the Panthers focus and run a more composed race.

Last week the Panther women had to basically get off the bus, stretch and go run, Masanet said.

This week they are leaving the night before so they will have plenty of time to relax and prepare themselves.

“Going there the night before means that there is going to be no rushing and throwing things around or getting stuff together really fast,” junior Erin O’Grady said. “You just get to take the time to yourself and think about what you are going to be doing before you get out on the line.”

The Panthers also go into Friday’s race coming off a lighter week of practice and junior David Holm said that should help everyone to feel more rested.

Freshman Brittany Arthur, having just started cross training for the first time ever this season said during the course of the last few weeks workouts have been pretty demanding.

“It was a pretty rough couple weeks. It was just good strong practices,” Arthur said. “But this week we had the opportunity to relax a little bit and I think the whole team feels better and we should be able to go out and race strong on Friday.”

Brandy Provaznik can be reached at 581-7944 or at blprovaznik@eiu.edu.

Members of the women’s cross country team run on the Panther Trail near Campus Pond Wednesday afternoon during warm-ups. The team will run in the Gold Division at the Notre Dame Invite on Friday. (Robbie Wroblewski/The Daily Eastern News)

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