DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women’s cross country team resumes its 2015 schedule on Saturday afternoon when the Huskies race at the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn.

Facing some of the nation’s best cross country teams at the 30th annual Griak Invitational, the Huskies will hope to continue to their strong start to season with another quality performance at Saturday’s race when the women’s Division I competition begins at 1:20 p.m. on Minnesota’s six-kilometer Les Bolstad Course.

NIU cross country head coach Adrian Myers highlighted top Huskie Kelsey Hildreth (Byron, Ill./Byron) and the performance of the team’s depth as two things that he hopes to see success from.

“I look to see an excellent showing from Kelsey against some of the nation’s elite in the always stellar Roy Griak field,” Myers said. “It could really establish her as one of the top cross country student-athletes in the MAC, Midwest Region and NCAA. She’s ready for some big races in the coming months.”

Hildreth already owns second-place finishes this season at the Illini Challenge and Illinois State Invite, but the super sophomore, who earned All-MAC and All-Midwest Region honors last fall as a freshman, could take another step forward and really make some noise nationally with a good performance on the Minnesota 6K course on Saturday afternoon.

Coach Myers also hopes to see the rest of his travelling roster to make an impact during this important meet, specifically mentioning Maura Beattie (Woodstock, Ill./Woodstock), Ericka Hibser (Lewiston, Ill./Lewiston), Carly Pederson (Bloomington, Ill./Normal Community) and Minnesota native Taylor Perkins (Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville North) as Huskies set to have a great race.

“I expect Maura, Ericka, Carly and Taylor to have very solid performances this weekend. Their training has been going very well, and I expect major breakthroughs,” Myers said of his squad’s depth runners. “We’ll need them to step up as we face a national class field this weekend.”

Lorena Martin (Salamanca, Spain/IFS Fray Luis de Leon) and Ali Olson (New Auburn, Wis./Bloomer) will round out the NIU roster competing at the Griak Invitational as both Huskies continue their returns from injuries to race this weekend.

The Huskies will run against one of their strongest opposing fields of the season on Saturday, with host school Minnesota welcoming numerous nationally and regionally ranked teams from all over the country to the 30th annual Griak Invitational, which will honor recently deceased Gopher legendary cross country coach Roy Griak during Saturday’s day-long event of cross country racing.

--NIU--