The University of Dayton men's cross country team will send runners to South Bend, Ind. to compete in Notre Dame's National Catholic Invitational Friday, Sept. 18.This year is the 36th National Catholic Championships. It began in 1980 for men.

The meet will feature more than 800 runners from 38 schools participating in the three races.  The men's varsity race, which the Flyers will be competing in, is set to begin at 5 p.m.

Last year, the Flyers finished fourth of the 10 teams competing in their division. Junior Kyle Lach finished 22nd of 184 runners, the highest of any returning UD runner.

"The National Catholic meet is a great event with some of the most competitive Catholic teams in the nation present," UD Head Coach Jason Ordway said. "It will be a great chance for our team to see where we stand against some strong competition, including a few teams ranked in the Top 15 in their respective regions."

Dayton's men's cross country will also send runners to the Friendship Invitational at Cedarville University on Saturday, Sept. 19.  Dayton is already familiar with competing against Cedarville this season, who also participated in the Rich Davis 5K Challenge.  The men's race is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. 

"Our group attending the Friendship Invitational will be fighting for position to break into our Top 10 and ultimately top seven that we will be traveling to conference and regionals this postseason," Ordway said. "While we thrive working as a team, our individual competitiveness is what will take this team to the next level. I'm excited to see how the younger guys adjust to the longer 8k distance."

The Flyers had encouraging results in their first meet, the Rich Davis 5K Challenge, finishing tied for second and only three points behind first-place Ohio University.  Dayton was led by Hunter Johnston who placed third individually with a time of 15:43.7.  Fellow junior Ethan Louis finished right behind Johnston recording a fourth-place finish.

"Our workouts have been very good so far this season and we're all excited to race again after our strong effort at the Rich Davis Flyer 5K," Ordway said.