SAN ANTONIO – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros cross country teams will be back in action Saturday as they take on the UIW Invitational. 
 
The men's team will run an 8K race starting at 8:30 a.m., and the women will run a 6K race starting at 9:05 a.m. at Live Oak City Park. The course is described as "flat and fast" with rolling hills and gradual turns. There will be 16 men's teams and 13 women's teams competing, including the hosting UIW Cardinals, UTSA, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Northern Colorado, Texas A&M-Commerce, Rice and various NCAA Division III and NAIA teams.   
 
"We want to compete well with the teams that are going to be there. It's not going to be the most high-profile meet, but there's going to some good competition for us to take some risks and see what we can do," assistant distance coach Travis Pope said. "We're looking like we're in pretty good shape coming into this meet, so we're just hoping we put it together in race mode." 
 
UTRGV opened the season at the UIW Twilight on Sept. 2, and the men's team came home with a third-place finish while the women's team was fourth. To build on that start and prepare for the longer distance races this weekend, the Vaqueros have spent the last month "training really hard" to get physically and mentally prepared. 
 
Pope feels the good performances at the first meet gave the team some confidence, especially the freshmen, but this meet will pose a bigger challenge because of the longer distance. Still, he believes the Vaqueros are ready to be competitive and he's particularly pleased with how tightly contested the men's squad continues to look. 
 
"We've been pushing our long runs, pushing our workouts and getting more fit aerobically and VO2-wise," Pope said. "Really, it's just making sure we're mentally tough. The student-athletes are fit, they're prepared, it's just having to hang in there for an extra 10 minutes or so. I'm excited to see what Estrella Medellin and Janie Delgado do on the women's side. They've had a good couple of weeks so we'll see if they can really step up from the last meet. On the guy's side, they're all training really, really well. I'm excited to see what Ricardo Garcia and Alex Canales do, but really, I'm just curious to see what order they come in." 

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