The University of Dayton's men's cross country team will send eight of its top runners to South Bend, Ind. on Friday, Sept. 19 to compete in the University of Notre Dame's 35th Annual National Catholic Invitational Championships. There will be 37 teams with 820 runners competing.

There will be two Dayton squads competing this weekend, with the other group of Flyers representing UD at the 24th Annual Friendship Invitational in Cedarville, Ohio on Sept. 20. Runners' times from the previous two meets, the Flyer 5K and Queen City Invitational were used to determine who would compete at the two events.

The Flyers have been a model of consistency so far this season, with the past two events producing the same group of top eight runners, albeit in different places. Also, the Flyers' top five runners at the Queen City Invitational finished within just 21 seconds of each other.

Head Coach Rich Davis enjoys seeing his team's effort lead to that kind of consistency.

"We need to control that effort to run another good race and get a good result in South Bend," Davis said. 

 Davis said his team's overall goal this season will be focused on finishing in the top half at the Atlantic 10 Championships on Nov. 1. One conference foe, Saint Louis University, will be competing in South Bend.

"How we finish against St. Louis will give us a good indication of how well we are on track," Davis said.

The squad heading to South Bend represents a bit of a youth movement in the cross country program. Of the eight runners, six are either freshmen or sophomores. Senior Michael Russell and junior Matt Krakora are the only upperclassmen competing.

A solid group of four sophomores, Alex Kuvin, Kyle Lach, Ethan Louis and Michael Tymoski will run in South Bend, with freshmen Michael George and Tyler Adgalanis — who has already been awarded the Atlantic 10 Conference Men's Cross Country Rookie of the Week twice for his performances in his first two collegiate events — rounding out the group. 

Written by Daniel Massa, University of Dayton Athletics Communication Student - Class of 2016