The Northampton cross country team will open its season this weekend by hosting their own invitational. The event will take place at Bicentennial Park in East Allen Township on Saturday Sept. 1.

“The invite has continued to get bigger and more competitive every year, and has become one of the highlighted invites of the opening weekend of the season,” head Northampton head coach Dan Benner. “Some of the best teams and runners from not only District XI, but from the state will be in attendance.”

The event will feature six races on the day.

The girls varsity race will start at 9 a.m., followed by the boys varsity race at 9:45 p.m.

The JV races will be run by the girls at 10:30 a.m. and then the boys at 11:15 a.m.

The last races of the day will be the middle school races, and the girls will start at noon and the boys will wrap thing at 12:30 p.m. before the award ceremony at 1 p.m.

“Between the six races, there will be over 1,000 athletes competing on the day,” said Benner. “Those 1,000-plus athletes will come from 38 different schools that will in attendance.

The list of schools are:

Archbishop Wood, Berks Christian, Bethlehem Catholic, Boyertown, Building 21, Central Bucks East, Collegium Charter, Council Rock South, Downingtown East;

Easton, Emmaus, Exeter, Fleetwood, Hamburg, Holland, Lansdale Catholic, Lehighton, Louis Dieruff, Mahanoy, Marian Catholic, Northampton;

Oley Valley, Palmerton, Pennridge, Pope John Paul II, Quakertown, Reading, Schuylkill Valley, Shenandoah Valley, Souderton, Southern Lehigh, Stroudsburg;

Susquehanna Community, Tamaqua, Upper Dublin, Upper Perkiomen, William Allen and Wilson.