ALLENDALE, MICH. – Grand Valley State is coming off of a first and second place finish at the Spartan Invitational (Sept. 16^th) as they make their way to Louisville, Kentucky to compete in the Live in Lou XC Classic on Saturday, October 1^st for the second year in a row. 
 
The Lakers were recently ranked No. 1 in the USTFCCCA Regional Rankings and No. 2 (women) & No. 3 (men) in the National Coaches' Poll earlier this week. Additionally, GVSU claimed two GLIAC Athletes of The Week after week 3 of the season; senior Tanner Chada and junior Natalie Graber. 
 
Last year at the Lou XC Classic, the Laker men took home second place in the Men's 8k Gold division with a total of 67 points, finishing with four GVSU runners in the Top 25. Three of those runners will be returning to the Lou XC Classic this year to compete including Tanner Chada, Andrew Hylen and Caleb Futter. 
 
All three individuals recorded personal-best times when previously competing at the Lou XC Classic; Tanner Chada with time of 23:23.7 finishing fourth, Andrew Hylen placed sixteenth with a time of 23:45.0 and Caleb Futter finished with a time of 23:58.3 placing twenty-fourth. 
 
The Grand Valley State women finished sixth overall in the Women's 5k Gold division with five runners scoring in the Top 60, four of which will be returning to compete again this year. Klaudia O'Malley finished forty-fourth with a time of 17:36.1, following behind her was Taryn Chapko in forty-ninth (17:37.9), Sarah May in fifty-fourth (17:39.5) and Natalie Graber in fifty-seventh (17:41.2). 
 
In the Blue division both men and women took home first place overall, where the men scored a total of 84 points and the women 94 points. Grand Valley State had seven Lakers finish in the Top 50 last year at the Lou XC Classic between both the mens' and womens' teams, with all seven runners returning to compete this year. 

The Gold division races will begin at 9:30am (men) and 10:15am (women) followed by the Blue division races at 10:45am (men) and 11:30am (women). Results will be posted on Twitter @GVSUXCTF and on Flash Results or watch live on FloTrack on Saturday, October 1^st.