Mustang Cross Country Announces 2024 Schedule
7/27/2024 12:30:00 PM | Cross Country
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly cross country program — which swept the Big West men’s and women’s team titles for the second straight year last fall and the seventh time overall — released its full 2024 schedule Saturday. The slate is highlighted by a regular season trip to the site of this year’s NCAA Championships.
The Mustangs open their 2024 campaign on Friday, Aug. 30, when they head to Malibu for the Waves Invitational hosted by Pepperdine. Then on Saturday, Sept. 21, the team will get a sneak peek at the 2024 Big West Championship course when they race in the UC Riverside Invitational. The last time Cal Poly stepped on the start line at the UCR Ag/Ops Course in 2022, the men and women both placed first at the Big West Championships to jump-start the program’s current two-year streak of conference title sweeps.
Next up, the Mustangs will split the squad between a pair of meets for the first time this fall, sending its top runners to the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational hosted by Loyola University Chicago on Friday, Oct. 4, and the rest of the team to the UC Santa Barbara Invite on Saturday, Oct. 5.
Two weeks later, Cal Poly will divvy up the team once again on Saturday, Oct. 19, for its final regular season action. The Mustangs’ top men’s and women’s runners will travel to Wisconsin to race in the Pre-Nationals meet at the site of this year’s NCAA Championships. It will mark the program’s first action on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course since competing in Wisconsin’s Nuttycombe Invitational on Oct. 18, 2019. The rest of the team is slated to take part in the Bronco Invitational hosted by Santa Clara, the fourth straight year Cal Poly has participated in the meet.
On Saturday, Nov. 2, Cal Poly returns to the UCR Ag/Ops Course looking to accomplish another monumental feat at the Big West Championships. The Mustangs are seeking to become just the second school in the history of the conference to sweep the Big West men’s and women’s cross country titles in three consecutive years since the conference began sponsoring both sports in 1983. UC Irvine accomplished the feat twice in 1985-87 and 1989-91.
Cal Poly heads to Colfax, Wash., on Friday, Nov. 15, to compete in the NCAA West Regional hosted by Washington State. It marks just the second time ever and the first time since 2019 that the West Regional has been held at the Colfax Golf Club. Last year, the Mustang men and women both placed eighth at the meet.
The 2024 NCAA Championships will be held on Saturday, Nov. 23, at Wisconsin’s Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course.
Both the Cal Poly men and women return nearly every runner that crossed the finish line at last year’s Big West Championship sweep in Nipomo.
