The ISU cross country teams will help honor a legend Saturday at the University of Minnesota.

The 20th annual Roy Griak Invitational features more than 80 teams from Division I, II and III. This year, the meet is expected to have its highest attendance ever, breaking last year’s record of more than 2,600 finishers.

Roy Griak, who will turn 82 on Oct. 5, is still on staff with the Gophers as an administrative assistant and will be an award presenter this year.

After graduating from high school in 1942, Griak enlisted in the military to fight in World War II and fought in the South Pacific until Japan surrendered. He ran track at the University of Minnesota for coach Jim Kelly and later became the cross country and track coach at St. Louis Park High School, a suburb of Minneapolis.

Griak has been a part of the Gopher Athletic Department for the past 41 years – 33 of them coaching track and cross country at Minnesota.

The meet was established in 1986 as the Minnesota Invitational, and in 1995, it was renamed the Norstand Invitational. After Griak retired as head coach in 1996, the meet was renamed once again in his honor. Since 1986, Griak has missed the invitational only once.

In 2000, he could not attend because of a reunion for World War II veterans.

ISU women’s cross country coach Dick Lee said he remembers when he first met Griak.

“He came to my high school for an all-sports banquet when I was in eighth or ninth grade,” Lee recalled. “That was the early ’70s and he’d been there for a long time then. He was [coaching] by himself with just a grad assistant. At meets, he was clerking, telling people where to go. He’d be lining up between 75 and 100 runners. That was before they had computers; back when the indoor track was clay.”

Lee said there have only been a couple of years that the Cyclones haven’t gone to the meet. In the early years, it was a low-key meet, he said.

“Now it has exploded into one of the biggest meets in the country,” Lee said. “It’s a little bit bigger than I’d like for their course, but I can’t pass up a meet that’s that big and only three hours away.”

Several runners may not be participating, though.

Decisions are still being made, but Lee said freshman Dana Peters will be redshirted and is contemplating whether to do the same with junior Jenny Mockler. Mockler has been battling illness and calf problems.

“We’re hoping for later in the season but it’s still up in the air,” Lee said. “Everybody else is good to go this weekend.”

Men’s coach Corey Ihmels is in the same situation, but has made final decisions to redshirt freshman Guor Majak Marial, sophomore Leif Lomeland and freshman Andrew Vos.

Decisions on freshmen Johnny Reel and Brandon Rooney are yet to be made.

Junior Kyle Rasmussen will not compete because of injury, nor will Ricky Reusser, whom Ihmels didn’t want competing at a high level yet.

The men’s team won the gold race in 1989, 1990 and 1993. This year, it will face a tougher challenge, especially from Wisconsin, which comes into Saturday’s race as the top-ranked team in the nation and the reigning champion.

“We’re throwing some freshmen into the mix to give us an idea of where we’re at,” Ihmels said.

“The guys are excited to mix it up with top-flight competition.”

The men will race at 11:20 a.m. while the women’s race is scheduled to begin at 12:10 p.m.