CHICAGO, Ill. – The Illinois Tech men’s and women’s cross country teams have released the 2017 schedule. It features eight meets total, four meets in the Chicagoland, and another trip the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Head Coach Keith Burke is excited about this season’s schedule, both from a short-term and long-term standpoint.

“With this 2017 schedule, we will be competing at and against a lot of institutions that we will see as conference competition when we make our transfer to the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in the fall of 2018,” said Burke, who is entering his second season as the head coach for both programs. “This is a competitive schedule that sets us up to compete and place very well at the 2017 USCAA meet.”

For the eleventh straight season, Illinois Tech will open up the schedule at the Elmhurst College Earlybird Invite at Eldridge Park. This year’s meet will take place Friday, September 1.

The rest of September features to repeat meets from last season’s schedule, as well as a new meet. Tech follows the Elmhurst meet with another local contest: Aurora University’s Spartan Classic at Oakhurst Forest Preserve (Friday, September 8).

The new meet on the September slate this season is a trip to Wisconsin-Whitewater for the Tom Hoffman Invitational. The Saturday morning meet (September 16) takes place on the UW-Whitewater campus. September closes out with a second straight trip to the Augustana College Brissman Lundeen Invitational on Friday, September 22.

After a week off, the Scarlet Hawks will compete at nearby St. James Farm Forest Preserve in Warrenville for the Benedictine University Eagle Invite on Friday, October 6. Eight days later, Tech will compete at UW-Oshkosh’s Kollege Town Sports Invite at Lake Breeze Golf Course in Winneconne, Wisconsin (Saturday, October 14).

The team’s final tune-up to the USCAA Championships will take place on Thursday, November 2, as Tech will compete at North Central College’s Red/White Invite. The USCAA Championships meet will once again be in Virginia Beach, Virginia at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex. The meet is set for for the weekend of November 9.