Saturday’s cross country meet serves a variety of purposes.

It’s an opportunity for The Master’s University to host 700 college and high school athletes at Central Park for one of Southern California’s premier events.

It’s a chance for said high schoolers to see one of the NAIA’s best programs, and, maybe, best-kept secrets, up close and personal.

And, in all likelihood, it’s a preview of the Golden State Athletic Conference men’s championship set to take place later this fall.

“We’re really excited to see what Westmont looks like,” said Master’s coach Zach Schroeder, who expects Saturday to provide a good idea of where his men’s team stands at this point in the year.

The six-race event, of course, provides a measuring stick for more than one team. The field of 24 colleges and more than a dozen high schools features NCAA Division 1 programs UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and Cal State Bakersfield.

In addition to four Division 2 teams, a quartet of GSAC programs will be in attendance.

For the Mustang women, ranked eighth in the country, that means an opportunity to run against Westmont and William Jessup, likely some of their stiffest competition in conference.

Schroeder said his hope for the women’s team Saturday is a top-five finish overall and the best finish of any NAIA squad.

That mirrors his expectations for the men’s team. And this week, that’s a healthy bet.

The Mustangs, winners of seven straight GSAC titles, entered the UC Riverside Invitational two weeks ago with a group that was almost entirely sick. Only half the squad raced.

They’ve had time to heal, though, before Saturday’s showdown with NAIA No. 22 Westmont.

Master’s is ranked 10th.

“The team has been looking healthy,” Schroeder said. “I feel like we’ll get a good snapshot of how strong our team could be. That’s our hope.”

Then, for the first time in the event’s six-year history, there’s the high school field, highlighted by perennial powers Saugus and Arcadia, among others.

Schroeder said the reasoning behind adding varsity and junior varsity races was threefold.

First, the coach found out earlier this year that Stanford would not be hosting its annual high school and college invitational.

“We thought it’d be a great opportunity to give the high schools another great meet to attend,” he said.

Second, Schroeder saw an opportunity to expand Master’s footprint in the cross country community.

“Our team has had a lot of success,” he said, “but there’s not nearly as many high schools that are aware of our program.”

The third reason was simple: love of sport.

“We really want to be a force to move running forward in Southern California,” Schroeder said.

For race times and more information, click/tap [here].