BEAUMONT, Texas - Lamar University's men's and women's cross country teams will make their return to action Friday as they get set to compete in the heavily-stacked Arturo Barrios Invitational hosted by Texas A&M. The meet will take place at the Watts Cross Country Course.
 
In its last meet, LU took part in the Chile Pepper Festival. The Cardinals had two runners place in the top 50 in Ashton Rainey (16th; 17:07.8) and Jonathan Rivera (34th; 24:51.5). The men placed 16th in the McDonnell Memorial 8K with 417 points while the women posted a 24th-place finish with 650 points in the Harter's Habanero 5K. 
 
Big Red competed in this event last season and saw the women (eighth) and the men (20th) each take home a top-20 finish. 
 
LU will be one of 38 teams to run in 2025 version of the meet. Also competing are fellow Southland Conference schools Houston Christian, UIW, McNeese, New Orleans, Nicholls, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UT Rio Grande Valley. There will also be two nationally ranked teams on the men's side in No. 10 Wake Forest and No. 27 Tulsa. 

In addition, other schools involved are host school Texas A&M, Abilene Christian, Arkansas State, Baylor, Houston, LSU, Louisiana, Mercer, Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State, North Dakota, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Rice, Sam Houston, SMU, TCU, Tarleton State, Texas Tech, UT Arlington, UTSA, and UTEP. 

The men will begin the meet with the 8,000 meters at 8:30 a.m., while the women will have their 6K meet at 9:15 a.m.
 

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