LARAMIE, Wyo -- The University of Wyoming Cross Country teams will start the 2021 season off with a race against No. 21 ranked Colorado State on January 23. The Cowboys and Cowgirls will both run a 6K on Saturday morning at North Cheyenne Community Park with the women running at 9:15 am, and the men at 10 am. 

"We're all very excited to have a competition this weekend," said Cross Country Head Coach Scott Dahlberg.  "The athletes have put in a lot of work the past year when there wasn't a race on the horizon, so to have an opportunity to run hard and compete against another team feels great.  We have a young team on both sides and it will be good to see them in an atmosphere that isn't practice.  With how long it's been since anyone has raced, we want the teams to push their limits and run hard, but also have a sense of gratitude for something we probably all took for granted before."

The Cowboys and Cowgirls are competing for the first time since the 2019 NCAA Mountain Region Championships which were held on November 15 of that year. The Cowboys finished sixth in the 10K race while the Cowgirls wrapped up the season with a 12th place finish in the 6K race. The Cowboys return six letterwinners and four redshirts while the Cowgirls get back eight letterwinners and two redshirts from last year's squad. 

On Wednesday the Mountain West released the annual Preseason Coach's poll that picked the Cowboys to finish fifth in the league, with the Cowgirls selected in seventh. 

The Cowboys come in to the event on Saturday ranked 33rd in the latest USTFCCCA that was conducted on November 24th. The next poll is slated to come out on January 21.  

-WYO-