(LIVE MEET SCORING)

The Dixie State men's and women's cross country teams begins the 2021 spring season this Saturday, Jan. 23, with the Dixie State Invitational at the Sand Hallow Resort Golf Course in Hurricane, Utah.
The women's 6-kilometer race will kick off at 12:15 p.m., followed by the men's 8K race at 1:00 p.m.

DSU TO HOST FIRST INVITATIONAL: Saturday's race will mark the first time in the program's NCAA era that the Trailblazers will host a race. Along with the Trailblazers, the field will feature men's and women's teams from fellow WAC members California Baptist and Utah Valley, in-state schools Southern Utah, Utah State and Weber State, and Idaho State. Both races are free and open to the public, however social distancing and masks are required to comply with University, county, state and federal COVID-19 restrictions.

2019 SEASON IN REVIEW: In the three regular season meets in 2019, the women's team finished third at the BYU Autumn Classic, 26^th-overall at the Sacramento State Capital Cross Challenge, and fourth at the SUU Color Country Invitational. At the BYU invitational, the Trailblazers placed six runners in the top-45. Sophomore Cassidy Elmont and senior Sara Fish were two of those six runners that are returning to Dixie State this year.
Meanwhile, the DSU men also finished third at the BYU Autumn Classic and fourth at the SUU Color Country Invitational, and posted a 22^nd-place showing at the Sacramento State meet. At the SUU Invite, the men had all five scoring finishers in the top-seven overall. Four of those five are returning to Dixie State this season, including senior Benjamin Fish, junior Kevin Kirk and sophomores Noah Ayala and Kallen Webster.
 
2021 ROSTER: The Trailblazers return a total of 13 runners from the 2019 squad, with 16 newcomers joining the team for the new season.

The men's team returns seven runners from last season, led by Webster and Kirk. Webster and Kirk competed in all three races in 2019, and finished in the top-45 of the BYU invitationals and the top-30 in the SUU invitational. They also seemed to be racing each other Kirk beat Webster by four places at BYU while Webster beat Kirk by four places at SUU.

At the 2019 RMAC Championships, Fish posted an 8K personal best time of 25:20.2 to place 39^th-overall, while Ayala followed in 51^st at 25:40.1.

Eight newcomers join the men's squad, including freshmen Julien Canales, Hayden Fessler, Corbin Martin, William McMahon and JC Sparks. In addition, sophomore Quinton Reed, and junior college transfers Andrew Allen and Brian Schulz round out this year's squad.

The DSU women return six runners from last season, highlighted by Elmont and Fish. Elmont and Fish helped pace the Trailblazers at 2019 RMAC Championship, where placed 45^th-overall (22:38) and Fish crossed the line in 60^th (23:01).

Eight newcomers join the women's team this spring, including freshmen Nya Farnsworth, Madelyn King, Kali Richardson, Jaylee Sorenson, Kirstin Williams, and Sydnie Zundel. Additionally, junior college transfers Madison Flippence and Mary Letham will add depth to this year's squad.

HEAD COACH JUSTIN DECKER ON THE TRAILBLAZERS: "We have been working hard and doing well in workouts, but until we get to our first race, it's hard to fully tell where everybody is at. We have a lot of runners we're excited about, a lot of new runners who haven't race yet and we're excited to see how they do. This will give us at least one race before heading to the WAC Championships at the end of February. That is one of the real big reasons why we wanted to host this meet because there are hardly any cross country meets available for teams to go to right now. It'll be a competitive race and it will be good for our team."

UP NEXT: The Trailblazers will race at the UNLV Invitational on Friday, February 19, in Las Vegas. That race will serve as the final tune-up before Dixie State travels to Seattle for the 2020-21 WAC Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Feb. 27.