Macomb, Ill. - The Western Illinois University cross country team season gets under way on Friday, September 1st, as they host the annual Early Bird Invitational.

The women open the meet at 5:00 p.m. with a 4K race while the men set off at 5:45 p.m. in a 6K race. Competing against Western Illinois is the University of Iowa.

"Iowa was a top-20 program in the nation last year and were second in the region," said Western Illinois cross country coach Matt Morris. "This will be great competition for us."

The men's squad is expected to be led by junior Kyle Mikowski while freshman Eric Anerino, juniors Kevin Deegan, and Jared Rothlauf will be right in the hunt, while anybody will could finish in the fifth spot.

"At practice this week the men were all grouped together," added Morris. "Our top five changes everyday. Mikowski is still up front with Anerino, Deegan, Rothlauf, and after that there's a lot of traffic and it changes around quite a bit."

The ideal 1-5 split for the men is still 30 seconds.

"That is very attainable for us at this time and we may do better than that," Morris said. "The men ran an 8K the other day and it was just 14 seconds between the split."

On the women's side, junior Beth Whalen will be out in front and will be followed by fellow juniors Chandel Ray, Stephanie Abram, Mary Scott and Melissa Jay.

"The girls have been running well," said Morris. "The women are still working on the 1-5 split for the girls and I just want them to run, be happy, and not be hurt."

Looking at the Mid-Continent Conference as a whole, the Western Illinois men were picked to finish fourth, while the women were selected to be fifth in the preseason polls.

"Everybody will see themselves higher ranked," added Morris. "Our conference has been getting more competitive the last couple years. In the end those are just predictions and everybody has to race to prove themselves. I'm taking the predictions with just a grain of salt."