With 17 ranked men's teams and 20 of the top 25 women's teams, this is the best meet of the year outside of NCAAs. No. 2 Syracuse is the highest-ranked team in the coaches' poll, but they'll face tough competition in No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Iona and No. 11 Wisconsin. No. 1 New Mexico should win the women's race handily, but look out for No. 3 Providence and No. 6 Boise St.

There are lots of things to pay attention to as the calendar has turned to October. #1 New Mexico will run at the Notre Dame Invite on Friday against three other ranked teams while CU opens the season at the Rocky Mountain Shootout on Saturday. Friday's Washington Invitational (Stanford and Oregon are both in the field) and Saturday's Greater Louisville Classic (Wisconsin, Iona, Michigan, Ole Miss, Iowa St.) highlight the rest of the weekend's action. How will stars like Molly Seidel and the Rosa brothers look in their first tests of 2015? How will super frosh Anna Rohrer, Ryen Frazier, Matthew Maton, Tanner Anderson and Jonah Koech do? *MB:  Official 10/2-10/3 Weekend NCAA XC Talk – Notre Dame, Paul Short, UW, Rocky Mountain, etc.

With no Kate Avery, the championship picture is wide open. Wisconsin junior Sarah Disanza is the top returner from a year ago but she's far from a shoo-in as she'll be pushed by British import Rhona Auckland (New Mexico) and NCAA track champs Dominique Scott (3k), Rhianwedd Price (1500) and Molly Seidel (10k).