Vermillion, S.D. - Trips to several prestigious meets and a Dakota Days home meet highlight the 2010 South Dakota cross country schedule, which was released by head coach Dan Fitzsimmons on Monday. The Coyotes will travel to a total of six meets during the season.

"This fall's schedule will be a good test for our young Coyote team," Fitzsimmons said. "We will run against some of the best teams in the nation at several big-name meets, but also get to compete in front of the home crowd on our own course."

In one month, the Coyotes will travel to St. Paul, Minn., twice and Fayetteville, Ark., once for some of the most well-known meets in the nation. Both the men and women will run six kilometers at the Oz Memorial Invitational, hosted by the University of Minnesota, on Sept. 10, before returning to the Les Bolstad Golf Course on Sept. 25 for the Golden Gophers' Roy Griak Invitational. Drawing some of the top programs from all NCAA levels, the women race six kilometers and men eight kilometers at the event. The Coyotes continue the challenging schedule with the Chile Pepper Festival, hosted by the University of Arkansas, on Oct. 16. The women still race six kilometers, but the men jump to 10.

"The meets in Minnesota and Arkansas will be good measuring sticks for our program," Fitzsimmons said. "One of our long-term goals is to compete at a national level and this will show our kids the kind of hard work and dedication it's going to take."

After historically hosting several meets at the Don Baker Cross Country Course just north of campus, USD will run there just once this fall with the Tim Young Dakota Days Open on Oct. 1. The Coyotes will partake in the homecoming festivities by racing five kilometers on the women's side and six on the men's. USD usually opens its season by hosting the Don Baker Invitational, but this season will instead travel to the Creighton/UNO Classic on Sept. 4 in Omaha, Neb. The meet will be scored as a double-dual for the Coyotes against Creighton and Nebraska-Lincoln.

"We love to race on our course because it's permanent," Fitzsimmons said. "It's always the same route and length so we can take those times and map our runners' progression. Plus it's great for parents and students to come see the excitement around our program."

USD concludes the season at the Great West Conference Championships on Oct. 30 in Edinburg, Texas, as Texas-Pan American hosts the event. The Coyote women, who will race five kilometers this season instead of six, return six of the top seven finishers from a squad that finished runner-up last season. The USD men will race eight kilometers with four of their top seven returning from a third-place squad.

For a complete look at the 2010 USD cross country schedule, click on the link above.