Stanley Redwine gets a kick out of his freshmen’s first meet at legendary Rim Rock Farm, home of Kansas University’s cross country teams.

“To understand what KU is all about for our underclassmen, that’s fun,” said Redwine, KU’s cross country coach whose men’s and women’s teams will compete today in the Bob Timmons Invitational. “Our upperclassmen understand what it all means and go out and compete well, but for our underclassmen, it’s pretty nerve-wracking for them.

“It’s their first major-college competition, and we’re at home. It’s really fun for me, and coach Clark (Doug, distance coach) that they’re here, prepared and ready to go.”

The Jayhawks don’t want to disappoint hometown fans during their only home meet, named after the former KU coach who still cultivates his course specifically for runners.

At last season’s meet, the Jayhawk men and women won the team competitions. Then a junior, Laura Lavoie beat out a pack of Kansas runners for the women’s title, while then-senior Mark Menefee finished first in his final race at Rim Rock in a Jayhawk uniform.

“They want to go the NCAAs this year, and we want them to go to the NCAAs,” Redwine said. “That’s our goal.”

KU’s top men’s runners are junior Chris Jones, sophomore Cameron Schwehr and freshman Benson Chesang of Ravine, Kenya; the women will be led by seniors Lavoie, Lauren Brownrigg and Pagie Higgins, junior Megan Manthe and sophomore Angela Pichardo.

“I think going into the year, we’re going to be much better than we were last year,” Redwine said. “Given that we have some upperclassmen that are really experienced, I think they should do some good things for our team.”

The women’s 5k race begins at 9 a.m.; the men’s 8k at 9:45. The field includes Barton County Community College, Butler County CC, Cloud County CC, Cowley County CC, Haskell Indian Nations University, Oral Roberts, Park and Missouri-Kansas City.

So, how many wide-eyed KU freshmen will compete? Redwine said he wasn’t sure.

“Some of them we’ll have to see if they’re going to be racing,” Redwine said. “We might have the opportunity to red-shirt some freshman who could help us more in the long run in years to come.”