​UPDATE: ​Per Stanford's own release, the Cardinal are sitting out Sean McGorty, Grant Fisher, and Alex Ostberg on Friday. We won't see a Syracuse vs. Stanford matchup until at least Wisconsin in three weeks. Our original preview appears below.

The hottest men's race of the weekend is taking place in Virginia this Friday at the Panorama Farms Invitational. No. 1 Stanford will go up against the defending NCAA champions, No. 2 Syracuse, as well as hosts No. 12 Virginia and No. 14 BYU. No. 4 Justyn Knight is excited.

4 more days

— Justyn Knight (@justyn_knight) September 19, 2016

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This will be our first real glimpse of Stanford and Syracuse, which have only raced some of their teams so far this fall. No. 6 Sean McGorty and No. 14 Grant Fisher could debut, as well as No. 8 Colin Bennie and Knight. We know these studs are talented, so let's take a look at how the rest of their teams have fared this season:

Steven Fahy, Blair Hurlock, Will Lauer, Alex Ostberg, Sam Wharton, Garrett Sweatt and Jack Keelan competed in the USF Invitational on September 3. The seven finished within 1 second of each other in 21st and 27th, respectively. Clearly, this was a training run. And it's uncertain if McGorty and Fisher will debut on Friday. Fisher only raced twice in his freshman campaign, while McGorty's first two cross country seasons were fairly short (three races in 2013, two in 2014), before handling a full schedule last fall. 

Stanford putting in quality work to prepare for the season (produced by Stanford Athletics):


Syracuse went 1-2-3 at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational on September 10. New transfer Iliass Aouani won in 26:18, with All-American Philo Germano and 2015 47th-place finisher Joel Hubbard 7 seconds behind in second and third, respectively. Aouani, formerly of Lamar, brings NCAA experience to the Orange; he had a runner-up finish in the South Central Region last November to advance to Louisville. His victory ahead of Germano and Hubbard is a good sign for 'Cuse, which needs to replace low stick Martin Hehir, although Virginia transfer Adam Visokay finished back in 21st and 13:59-guy Adam Palamar faded to 40th. With Visokay returning to his old stomping grounds at Panorama Farms, this race should be a better indication of what he'll bring to this team. 

No. 2 Syracuse working out on Sweet Road (produced by Syracuse Athletics):


Lawrence Kipkoech of Campbell won the adidas XC Challenge last weekend and was a double NCAA outdoor qualifier in the 5K and 10K last June. If anyone is going to take down McGorty and/or Knight, it could be Kipkoech.

The women's field features No. 17 Regan Rome of William and Mary, who most recently finished seventh in the NCAA outdoor 5K. Rome was sixth in this race as a freshman, and she will likely be challenged by Coastal Carolina's Annie Bothma. She competed for Boise State last fall, and finished third at the 2015 Roy Griak Invitational -- her only race as a Bronco. After running 17:01 on the grass a few weeks ago, Bothma, who runs barefoot, looks to be healthy after reportedly being hit by a car last fall.

The team battle is expected to answer a lot of questions about No. 19 Syracuse, No. 25 BYU and unranked Virginia and William and Mary. The young Orange team was led by Madeleine Davison at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invite. The freshman outkicked Penn State's Jillian Hunsberger to finish third behind Nittany Lion studs Tessa Barrett and Elizabeth Chikotas.

Virginia scored only 30 points to win this meet in 2015, but without top returners Iona Lake and Cleo Boyd, the Cavaliers will need to show us something if they want to move into the women's Saucony Flo50 Rankings.