The University of Evansville cross country teams will return to the trails on Friday afternoon, as the Purple Aces will travel to Lafayette, IN to take part in the Indiana Intercollegiate Championships at the Purdue Varsity Cross Country Course. Friday's action will start at 3:30 p.m. with the men and women's open races. The women’s 5K event will follow at 4:30 p.m. while the men’s 8K event is scheduled for approximately 5:15 p.m.

The Aces will see top competition from around the state on Friday. The men will see four of the top 10 teams in the Great Lakes Region. IU comes in ranked third, Butler is fourth, conference rival Indiana State is sixth and host school Purdue is tenth. In the women’s race, Indiana, Purdue, and Butler are ranked seventh, ninth and twelfth respectively in the Great Lakes Region.

Senior Ryan Witters will look to feed off of his recent MVC Athlete of the week honors after his great showing at last Saturday’s Miami Invitational. Witters led for most of the race only to be passed in the last 50 meters to finish in third place. On the women’s side, sophomore Lauren Zeabart and freshman Kelby Jenkins finished eighth and ninth respectively last Saturday. It was the second straight team-leading finish for Zeabart, who was fifth overall in last week's Mid-America Opener.

“I feel like we have a shot to place higher than we ever have at this event,” said UE coach Don Walters. “On the men’s side, Witters had a third place finish on Saturday and Miers beat his personal record by over 2 minutes, I expect both to perform well against the top runners in the state. Zeabart and Jenkins are leading the women and all five top runners should do well this Friday.”