KAYLIN PELLEGRINI | STAFF REPORTER

The Butler women’s cross country team will compete Saturday in the Roy Griak Invitational at the University of Minnesota.

The team placed third in last year’s invitational.

This is the first meet where the team will be able to earn points to help them reach the national meet.

Minnesota native  and senior runner Mara Olson will be competing in her hometown. Olson finished fourth overall in last year’s meet, and emphasized the importance of setting a positive tone in this meet.

“It’s really important for us to start accumulating some of these wins so we can make our way towards the national meet,” Olson said.

To get to the national meet, teams earn a bid by being one of the top two teams in their region or by beating the other teams in their region that earn a bid.

It will also be the debut of the varsity team.

“It’s really important for us to be competitive and hopefully develop a little bit of confidence in how we’re going to be as a team this year, because we don’t have a feel for that yet,” Olson said. “All we’ve done is run against each other and it’s always interesting to see how you hold up against competition,” Olson said.