The Eastern cross country teams will be heading to South Bend, Ind., for their meets at the Notre Dame Invitational today.

The women will start at 2 p.m. and the men at 2:45 p.m. Both the men and women will be represented in the gold division, and expect to improve from last year when the men took home 10th, and the women won seventh.

Red-shirt senior Brad LaRocque has been going through visualizations to prepare himself for the Norte Dame Invitational. This will be his third year competing in this competition.

“In the past years, I was too hyped up for each meet, so this year I have kind of a nonchalant attitude about it to keep me relaxed and chilled, so when race day does come, I’m not all exhausted” LaRocque said.

Senior Olivia Klaus said she is expecting big things from herself this year compared to last year when she finished 13th. She said she is more focused to race smarter, rather than harder, for the best outcome.

“My goal is top five, but I would be content with top 10,” Klaus said. “Definite goal is top five.”

Laroque said he expects his men’s team to finish in the top three.

Second-year cross country head coach Erin Howarth stressed that both the men and women teams have been completely devoted. She said she believes keeping up with classes, rest and the big workload in practice last week will be the key in both teams success.

Howarth, Klaus and Laroque are all in agreement that their success will be shown because of their extensive amount of depth on both teams.

Klaus said the women have been fortunate to not be hit with any season-ending injuries like the men have in Mike Hesslau with a stress reaction in his shin, and most recently freshman Joe Calio with an appendix injury.

“I think that just shows how well the girls, if something’s bothering them, they’re in the training room.”

Howarth acknowledged that the team’s biggest competition on the men’s side would be North Central, University of Illinois-Chicago and Grand Valley State. Northwestern, Bradley and Indiana State will be top competition on the women’s end, according to Howarth.

“This is one of the bigger meets and the fastest course we will encounter this season,” Howarth said. “The expectation is for both teams to finish between third and sixth.”

Nick Blankenship can be reached at 581-7942 or nrblankenship@eiu.edu.