The Charlotte 49ers cross country team will travel to Elon, N.C. this Saturday for the Elon Invitational. The men's 8K race is set to begin at 9:00 a.m., while the women's event will follow at 9:45 a.m.

The Niners are coming off a strong performance at home last weekend at the Charlotte Duals meet, where they were victorious against four of five teams. Charlotte beat out Wingate, Gardner-Webb, Catawba and Wofford, falling only to Atlantic 10 rival St. Joseph's on the day.

At the inaugural race for the 49ers at Frank Liske Park, sophomore Katie Holloway led her team to victory with a first place finish in the women's 5K race. Holloway finished in a course record time of 18:14.88, over 25 seconds ahead of #2 finisher Maureen O'Donnell of St. Joseph's.

"It was a great opener for a lot of our individuals," head coach Ed Schlichter said of his team's performance at the Duals meet. "Katie did an amazing job, to beat the top girl from St. Joe's, who was a top-25 competitor at A10's last year. It definitely bodes well for us right now."

Also finishing for the top 10 for Charlotte were former cross country standout Laura McCary, who ran unattached and picked up a fourth place finish (19:01.91) and junior transfer Maraya Slatter, who finished sixth (19:08.98) in her first race for the 49ers.

On the men's side, rookie Zach Greth and sophomore Eleazar Garcia both cracked the top ten, finishing ninth (16:03.56) and tenth (16.09.84) respectively.

"We've got a great nucleus of individuals, and this weekend we're going to add in more people, so we're gradually putting everything together. We're trying to just build into the season and we're looking to take off pretty soon."

This weekend at Elon, Schlichter will add a few more runners into the mix. Brian McGuire, Daweet Dagnachew and Joseph Cotto will all be running on the men's side, as will Hana Sutchar, last year's #2 runner on the women's team.

Along with Elon, UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Greensboro will be the teams to beat this Saturday. "We're looking to mix it up well with them and see how some of our girls compete with some of their runners. If we mix it up with them, then I know we're doing pretty well."

Following the Elon Invitational, the 49ers travel to Falcon Heights, Minnesota for the Roy Griak Invitational on September 24^th.