The Valparaiso University men’s and women’s cross country programs have announced their schedule for the 2023 season, which will take place under the direction of second-year Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Vincent Walker.

The Winrow Valparaiso Open, the program’s annual home meet, will kick off the slate on Friday, Sept. 1 with the women’s race beginning at 5 p.m. and the men’s race to follow at 5:45 at Sunset Hill Farm County Park. This will mark the 34^th running of Valpo’s home meet, which is named in honor of former head coach Ed Winrow, who passed away in March 2020.

After the season-opening meet, the Beacons make their way to Normal, Ill. for the Redbird Invite, which will be hosted by conference-foe Illinois State on Sept. 15. The docket continues on Sept. 29 with an instate trip to Notre Dame for the Joe Piane Invitational.

The Bradley Pink Classic will remain a staple on the Valpo schedule and is slated for Oct. 13. That meet will serve as the final precursor to the Missouri Valley Conference Championship, which will be hosted by Belmont on Oct. 27. Valpo will compete in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional in Madison, Wis. on Nov. 10 with the goal of sending qualifiers to NCAA Nationals on Nov. 18 in Charlottesville, Va.

The Beacons will look to build on a successful 2022 cross country campaign that saw the men boast the highest NCAA Regional finish in program history. During that event, five Valpo men cracked the program record book in the 10K including five of the seven best 10K times in program history. The Bradley Pink Classic marked another highlight of last season as four Beacons (three men in the 8K and one woman in the 6K) turned in all-time top-10 times, including the second and third fastest 8K performances in Valpo men’s cross country history.