HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana cross country and track and field teams will travel from Virginia to California in the 2017-18 schedule released on Thursday.

    A trip to Texas A&M highlights the six-meet cross country regular season schedule in Corey Mistretta's first season as the head coach of the Lions and Lady Lions. Senior Devin King will get to compete at one of the largest pole vault competitions at the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada during the indoor track and field season that also includes a visit to the Virginia Tech Hokie Invitational. And the return of the Southeastern Strawberry Relays following a year hiatus headlines the outdoor slate.

    The 2017 cross country slate opens in New Orleans at the UNO Invitational on Sept. 1. Southeastern then travels to Baton Rouge for the LSU Cross Country Invitational before making the trip to College Station for the Texas A&M Invitational. The McNeese Cowboy Stampede in Lake Charles, the Mississippi College Watson Ford in Clinton, Mississippi and the Alabama Crimson Classic in Tuscaloosa, Alabama close out the regular season. The Southland Conference Championships are scheduled for Oct. 27 in Abilene, Texas.

    "We are very excited about the additions to our cross-country team and believe everyone will see a huge improvement over last year," Mistretta said of the squads that will have a combined 13 newcomers. "The Texas A&M meet will highlight the season and our preparations for the Southland Conference Championships in Abilene. We do have a meet at Alabama that will give us a very good indication of where we are in relation to the other teams in our region."

    The 2018 indoor season gets underway at the LSU Purple Tiger in Baton Rouge on Jan. 5. King, a four-time All-American, heads to the Pole Vault Summit the following weekend while his teammates compete in the McNeese Opener in Lake Charles. Southeastern then heads east for the Hokie Invitational in Blacksburg, Virginia before returning to Lake Charles for the McNeese Invite II.

    The Lions and Lady Lions will make the first of four visits to the Birmingham (Ala.) CrossPlex, home of the Southland Championships, for the KMS Invitational at the end of the month. Southeastern will also be in CrossPlex for the South Alabama Jaguar Invitational and Samford Open following a trip to the LSU Bayou Bengal. After a break for Mardi Gras, the squads finish up the season at the LSU Twilight. The Southland Indoor Championships are set for Feb. 20-22.

    "Our indoor schedule is highlighted by a trip to Reno, Nevada with Devin King for the Pole Vault Summit," Mistretta said. "The rest of our schedule will consist of in-state meets at LSU and McNeese as well as a couple of trips to Alabama to get use to the CrossPlex surface where the conference championship will be held."          
    
    Southeastern will stay in state for its first three outdoor meets, starting with a visit to the Tulane Early Bird Twilight in New Orleans for the second straight year March 2. The McNeese Bob Hayes Invite in Lake Charles and the Louisiana Classic in Lafayette follow before the Lions and Lady Lions head to Oxford, Mississippi for the Ole Miss Joe Walker Invitational.

    Southeastern will have a busy week after coming back from spring break with the squads splitting up between the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, the Southern Miss Invitational and the Texas State Bobcat Invitational. After competing in the McNeese Spring Time Classic, Southeastern will host the Strawberry Relays April 13-14 at the Southeastern Track Complex. The meet will be the fifth Strawberry Relay at the Complex dating back to the 2012 season.

    The Lions and Lady Lions wrap up the regular season at the LSU Alumni Gold, Northwestern State Invite and Ole Miss Classic before competing in the Southland Championships in San Antonio, Texas May 4-6. The NCAA East Preliminaries are scheduled for Tampa, Fla. May 23-26 with the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Oregon June 5-9.

    "The outdoor schedule will look a lot like last year's schedule, which gives our kids a great opportunity to compete in front of their families as we start the outdoor slate with meets at Tulane, McNeese and ULL," Mistretta said. "We did add a big meet at Ole Miss where (sophomore thrower) Ashley Davis will get to compete against some of the best throwers in the country. The Texas Relays remains on our schedule as an opportunity for some of our national level athletes to compete against the best of the best. We added a meet at Southern Mississippi prior to spring break that will give us a very good idea of who we will be counting on later in the season at the conference championships.  We will also be hosting the Strawberry Relays this year and look forward to being able to compete in front of our home fans after taking last year off."