THE WEEKEND AHEAD: Saints, Vikings, Wildcats, Cougs & Zags in action this weekend...

This weekend has a light competition schedule with only five of the nine Washington Division I & II schools in action.

Friday starts off in San Francisco, as Saint Martin's travels south for the San Francisco State Invitational at Golden Gate Park.

The Saints are coming off a victory at the John Payne/Curtis Invitational at Chambers Creek Park Saturday from its women's squad, while the men finished second at the meet.

Alauna Carstens (Paul Merca photo) led the Saints to the team title with her win over the course, which was later found to be over 5k, clocking 18:44.

Carstens was recognized by the Great Northwest Athletic Conference as its female athlete of the week for her efforts.

Saint Martin's will see fellow GNAC member Simon Fraser in San Francisco.

The meet gets underway Friday at 3:30 pm with the men's 8k, and the women's 6k following at 4:15 pm.

The link to live results is available here.

The nationally ranked Western Washington squads head to Romeoville, Illinois for one of the biggest Division II meets of the season Saturday at the Lewis Crossover, hosted by Lewis University, featuring several nationally ranked teams.

Racing gets underway at 7:45 am Pacific/9:45 am Central with the men's 8k, with the women's 6k following at 8:30 am Pacific/10:30 am Central.

Going into the meet, the Vikings are ranked number 18 in the USTFCCCA national women's poll, and number 26 in the men's national poll.

The Lewis Crossover is one of two meets the Vikings will run in against national caliber competition before the conference championship, as they will also run in the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet in two weeks at Chambers Creek in University Place.

Lewis University will live stream the meet via this link, while the link to live results is available here.

Closer to home, Washington State, Gonzaga and Central Washington will send athletes to the Lewis/Clark State Invitational (aka Inland Empire Challenge) in Lewiston, Idaho, near the school campus.

The meet takes place at the LCSC Cross Country Trail, with the women's 5k starting at 10:30 am, and the men following at 11:30 am.

Host Lewis/Clark State will live stream Saturday's races via this link.

NOTE: The USTFCCCA, and the sports information offices of San Francisco State, Lewis University, Lewis/Clark State, Saint Martin's, Western Washington, Central Washington, and Washington State contributed to this report.

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