Nearly 700 runners from 30 states will be descending upon Cedar Rapids this week for the NAIA national cross country meets at Seminole Valley Park.

The women's 5-kilometer race is set for Friday at 10:30 a.m., with the men's 8-kilometer event scheduled for 11:30.

Mount Mercy University is the host school and has received automatic berths in the championships, which feature 36 women's teams and 36 men's teams in each race along with nearly 200 individuals who qualified as at-large contestants.

Mount Mercy has been working with city officials and more than 100 community volunteers to stage the event. It's the first time the 63rd annual NAIA national meet has been held in Cedar Rapids and will bring an estimated $500,000 economic boost to the local economy.

"It's quite an enterprise," said Jamie Jimison, the director of cross country and track at Mount Mercy. "There have been a lot of cogs in the machine that have helped this thing go."

Mount Mercy has a solid cross country program, among the best in the Heart of America Conference, and Jimison is confident the national meet will boost their  program in terms of exposure, recruitment and a commitment to compete on a national level.

"Mount Mercy is a small school, but we have aspirations to do big things," he said. "I think this is a sign of what our goals are.

"It shows our commitment and dedication to continue to put a good product out there and make ourselves visible and do exciting things in the community."

Cedar Rapids submitted the winning bid to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) to host the national meet in 2018 and 2020. Mount Mercy, the only NAIA college in Cedar Rapids, worked closely on the project with the former Sports Tourism bureau of GoCR, which was recently incorporated into city government following the demise of GoCR earlier this year.

There has been a cross country course at Seminole Valley Park since 2014, thanks primarily to the Cedar Rapids parks department and Mount Mercy. The Mustangs use Seminole Valley Park as their home course, although a big race earlier this fall was moved to Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids due to flooding at Seminole Valley Park.

Race directors and volunteers spent a considerable amount of time this past Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Seminole Valley Park, mowing the course, painting the layout, rolling the ground and repairing soft spots on the course.

It's been a labor of love and the hour is near to celebrate and enjoy the achievement.

"I feel like there will be some happy tears shed for all the work that's been put in to make this happen," said Tad Hulst, the assistant head coach for cross country at Mount Mercy. "It will be really cool to see it come to fruition.

"Hopefully we'll post some good times and show the nation what we're made of here in Cedar Rapids and Mount Mercy."

It will be a special treat for the Mustangs to participate in a national meet on their home course.

"This is an experience that most people don't get, to run in a national championship in front of their home crowd," said Hulst. "We're hopeful for a big turnout and we have really big goals out there."

The forecast for Friday is for dry weather with the temperature in the low 40's, which is just fine for cross country runners. It should be much better than all the wet, windy days they've had this season.

The course is firm, now that they've repaired a few soft spots and slightly altered the course at Seminole Valley Park.

"It loks fast," said Hulst. "It's going to be ideal. You can't ask for better weather this time of year. It's going to be a very fast championship race."

Jimison sees it the same way.

"With what we've been dealing with this year, that's going to seem like an amazing, perfect day," he remarked. "It finally seems that on the best possible day, we're doing to have the best possible conditions we can get."