Sept. 4, 2008

The USC women's cross country team will open the 2008 season at the UC Irvine Invitational in Irvine, Calif. on Saturday (Sept. 6) at 8:40 a.m.

The Trojans have entered 14 runners in the 5K race which will feature 175 runners from 14 teams, including Loyola Marymount, UCLA, Pepperdine, Concordia and host UC Irvine.

"This is a good chance for some of our freshman and first-year runners to show what they have and show that they are ready to compete at the college level," said USC cross country head coach Tom Walsh. "This is a good chance for me to get my top 12 in order, a chance to see these runners, many for the first time as a Trojan."

The Trojans' projected top four runners of Sarah Cocco, Zsofia Erdelyi, Bridget Helgerson and Christine Greer will not compete in this meet. They will continue to train through the weekend to get ready for next weekend's Aztec Invitational in San Diego, Calif.

"Our goal for this week is more to see how they compete," said Walsh. "This is more of an introduction and evaluation race which will give us a chance to see where we stand at this point in the season."

The UC Irvine Invitational is being run on campus for the second time. The 5K course is fairly flat with a mixture of pavement and grass.

The Trojan runners scheduled to run on Saturday are freshman Leah Gaeta, Jessica Lundin and Joy Samuels; sophomores Brianna Bentley, Zara Lukens, Colby Kennedy and Devon Rennie; juniors Chanel Fischetti, Katherine Ellis, Jasmine Leija, Jennifer Wells and Lindsay Buckley; and seniors Liz Gill and Allison Spies.