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BLACKSBURG – The Virginia Tech cross country teams returns to the course on Friday evening for the VT Alumni Invite, which will be held at the Buford Meredith Cross Country Course on Virginia Tech’s campus.

Thirteen universities will be bringing their teams to Tech’s campus to compete. A total of 286 student-athletes will be competing.

The meet will mark the season opener for the Tech men’s team, which ran half of the Hokie Invite on Sept. 8 before officials stopped the race because of the lightning and ultimately cancelled it. The women’s race was run roughly 30 minutes earlier, and Tech’s Jennifer Fleming, running unattached, finished second overall in a time of 13:59.34, six seconds behind Josette Norris of North Carolina.

Three other Tech runners finished in the top 10, with Julie Wiemerslage coming in seventh, Jillian Everly coming in ninth and Shannon Morton finishing 10^th. Only Morton and Shalonda Mitchell, who finished 19^th, would have counted toward Tech’s team score, as all the others ran unattached.

The Hokies’ alumni 4K race will start things, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Some of the former runners include David Peterson (Class of 1982), Doug Law (Class of 1985), Ken Coddington (Class of 1985), Alice Coddington Gaines (Class of 1992), Frances Dowd (Class of 2013) and recent graduates Paige Kvartunas and Madalyn Nuckols among others.

The women’s 6K race will begin at 6 p.m., while the men’s race starts at approximately 6:40 p.m.

For updates on Virginia Tech cross country, follow the Hokies on Twitter Follow @VT_Track