The 2011 Adidas Notre Dame Invitational to be held on Friday, September 30 will bring together many of the nation’s top teams seeking to make early season statements and position themselves well for later invitationals and championship meets.

Friday will serve as the first major test for the second-ranked New Mexico women. The highly touted Lobos return four of seven from their 2010 team that finished fifth at nationals.

That group is highlighted by senior Natalie Gray who was the Mountain West conference champ and 15th in Terre Haute last year. Another to watch out for is Ruth Senior. The native of Norwich, England finished ninth at the NCAA outdoor track championships for 10k, just missing out on an All-American spot.

Florida State will be the primary challenger for the Lobos. The Lady Seminoles hosted an invitational in Tallahassee last weekend but held out most of their top runners. Their last race was at the Clemson Pre-ACC meet where the team ran as a pack and finished with less than a 20 second spread between its top seven runners.

Two key additions for coach Karen Harvey’s team come in the form of junior transfers Violah Lagat and Kayleigh Tyerman. Lagat, sister of acclaimed American distance runner Bernard Lagat, is a community college transfer from Central Arizona who finished third at the National Junior College Championships in 2010. Tyerman comes way from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo where she was a multiple-time All-Big West honoree.

Arkansas made a huge jump to 18th in the national polls from being unranked. The catalyst for the change was the team’s surprise win last weekend at the Toledo Inter-Regional Bubble Buster meet, a competition designed to help teams earn head-to-head points for an eventual at-large bid for nationals. The Razorbacks’ chances to be in Terre Haute on November 21 were surely bolstered by the win. Middle distance specialist Stephanie Brown led the way with her third place finish.

Twenty-second ranked Princeton won each of its two early-season competitions at the Fordham Invitational and tri-meet against Harvard and Yale. Top runner Alex Banfich won in her season debut at the HYP meet against Heps rivals.

Penn State arrives in South Bend seeking to bounce back from a disappointing eighth last week at Roy Griak. “We're a little better than what the results showed," said coach Beth Alford-Sullivan on the Griak performance. Senior Caitlin Lane led the way for the Nittany Lions in seventh place.

Like Penn State, BYU also fell in the national rankings after a rough showing at Roy Griak where the Cougars finished tenth. Senior Morgan Haws in the front runner for BYU having finished second in Minnesota and should be in contention for the win on Friday.

For the men, eight of the nation’s top 30 ranked teams will be competing on the five mile course at the Notre Dame Golf Course.

At number three, Stanford is the top squad entered in the men’s competition. The Cardinal hosted their home invitational last week with Chris Derrick and Jake Riley going one-two and the team overwhelmingly defeating its nearest competitor.

Coach Jason Dunn will not be sending the full Stanford squad to Notre Dame, instead taking a group that “needs experience and is competing for the final spots on the team during the championship season,” according to a Stanford press release. With the team’s top five runners solidified, look for a younger crew to line up in South Bend hungry to prove their worth.

Tenth-ranked Florida State slipped a spot in the USTFCCCA rankings this week but is still a major contender for a podium placing at nationals coming off the team’s runner-up finish last year. The Seminoles convincingly won the Clemson Pre-ACC meet on September 16 with the majority of the team running a controlled effort. Senior Michael Fout is the squad’s leading man having placed third individually at Clemson and qualified for NCAA’s in the 10k outdoors. Look for Fout to be among the leaders on Friday.

Princeton is scheduled to split squads to run both at Notre Dame and Paul Short. Assuming the Tigers send their ‘A’ squad to Notre Dame, the team will be in contention for the team title. NCAA steeplechase runner up Donn Cabral led Princeton to a convincing win at the Fordham Invitational three weeks ago. Freshman Eddie Owens from Brooklyn, N.Y. had an impressive opener to his collegiate career with a second place showing at Fordham.

BYU opened up its season strongly with a win at its home invitational on September 16. Miles Batty, the NCAA indoor mile champ, also has great cross country credentials having finished 15th at nationals last year. Placing second at the BYU Invitational, sophomore Jared Ward looks to be much improved from his 151st nationals finish in 2010.

New Mexico lost big pieces from its 2010 team with the graduation of Rory Fraser and David Bishop but also welcome Nicholas Kipruto back into the mix from injury. Kipruto was off to a fast start last year, finishing second to Arizona standout Stephen Sambu at Griak before suffering a stress fracture that ended his season.

Host Notre Dame returns five of its top six runners from nationals last year including senior standout Jeremy Rae. The native of Fort Erie, Ontario was ninth at the NCAA outdoor championships for 1500 meters. The team handily won the National Catholic Championships two weeks ago behind the runner up finish of Martin Grady.

Number 25 ranked Ohio State and number 26 Eastern Kentucky round out the ranked teams that will compete at Notre Dame.

Check back to Flotrack on Friday for complete coverage of the 2011 Notre Dame Invitational. Find the meet coverage page here.