RUSTON—The Northwestern State cross country guys are back in action after two weeks off, while the women are competing for a second consecutive week, as they make the short trip to the campus of Louisiana Tech for the Mook 4 Invitational on Saturday.

The meet takes place at the Louisiana Tech Farm with the women competing at 8 a.m. and the men take to the track at 8:40 a.m.

In addition to Northwestern State and the home school Louisiana Tech, other schools that are participating are UAPB, Grambling, Southern, TCU and UL Monroe. Bossier Parish CC is only participating in the women's meet.

The men took two weeks off from outside competition after the Rice Invitational as they trained for longer meets while Leah Thompson led the women at the McNeese Cowboy Stampede this past weekend in their last meet.

"On the men's side, we've had a good last three weeks," head coach Payten Vidourek said. "They put in a lot of good work this week. We had a good workout, concentrating on hills since Tech is a very hilly race.

"On the women's side, they did a lot of hill work as well and did very well. They are a lot fresher than I expected, especially running back-to-back weekends."

Thompson clocked a 20:18.5 in the 5K in the Cowboy Stampede this past weekend to place 46^th. She also finished 46^th among other talented runners at the Rice Invitational. Thompson began the year with a 25^th place finish at the McNeese Season Opener.

"Leah shows her experience every race," Vidourek said. "I am trying to get in both Chesney (Mathews) and Faith's (Bryant) heads that they can be close to Leah in the race. In practice, they've been doing really well."

Despite the bus breaking down and making it to the meet just 15 minutes prior to the start, the women did as well as they could have been expected to do.

Vidourek was interested in seeing how Chesney Mathews and Faith Bryant perform in Lake Charles, and came away impressed, despite the bus issues.

Bryant ran a 21:57.8 to place 54^th, while Mathews finished two spots Bryant in 56^th, running a 22:36.5.

On the men's side, this is their first meet since the Rice Invitational on Sept. 13. In his two meets, Korbin Shumate clocked a season-best 16:12.8 in the 5K at the McNeese Opener, placing 24th before running a 17:41.4 in the 5.2K last time out at the Rice Invitational to finish 46th.

Following the meet, the cross country teams take a week off before competing at the Watson Invitational at Mississippi College on Oct. 18, their final meet prior to the Southland Conference Championships, which take place Nov. 1.