THE WEEKEND AHEAD: Eastern Washington travels to Missouri, while five schools stay in the Northwest...

Six of Washington's nine Division I and II schools are in action this weekend as the collegiate cross country season moves towards October.

Eastern Washington University (photo courtesy EWU Athletics) kicks off the weekend, as their top eight runners travel to Columbia, Missouri for the Gans Creek Classic, hosted by the University of Missouri on the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.

Competition in the meet comprises primarily of schools from the Midwest, though the Eagles will compete against Big Sky Conference foe Weber State.

The meet gets underway at 7 am Pacific with the men's 8k, and follows 45 minutes later with the women's 6k race.

Eastern Washington's release is here, while the link to live results is available here.

The rest of the Eagle squad will run the next day at the Whitman Open meet in Walla Walla, starting at 10:30 am.  They will be joined by Central Washington, along with Puget Sound, Whitworth, and host Whitman.

The link to live results is available here.

Seattle Pacific and Seattle University will send teams to Salem, Oregon Saturday for the Charles Bowles Invitational, hosted by Willamette University.

The men's 8k starts the competition at 9:30 am, followed by the women's 5k at 10:20 am.

The link to live results is available here.

Finally, Saint Martin's and Western Washington will stay close to home, as they'll run at the John Payne/Curtis Invitational at Chambers Creek Park in University Place.

For both the nationally ranked Vikings and the Saints, this will be their first look this season at the Chambers Creek course that will host the NCAA D2 Pre-Nationals on October 22nd, as well as the NCAA D2 cross country championships on December 1st.

The women's 5k race starts the meet at 9:30 am, followed by the men's 8k at 10 am.  Note that upon the conclusion of the collegiate races, the course will host one of the state's top high school invitational meets.

The link to live results is available here.

NOTE: The sports information office of Eastern Washington University, Whitman University, Willamette University, and the John Payne/Curtis Invitational contributed to this report.

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