Notre Dame travels to Albuquerque on Friday for the New Mexico Team Invitational, a two-day event with a strong nine-team field that coach Joe Piane said would serve as an early test for his squad.

“If we want to view ourselves as a national-class team, we have to compete at a national-class level,” Piane said. “It’s no different than a basketball team; if you can compete against some [teams] in the preseason, that’s fine … but what really counts is when you go up against that top class of teams.”

The Irish enter the meet coming off a strong performance on their home track at last Saturday’s Notre Dame Invitational.

The Irish women earned six first-place finishes en route to a team win in the home event, its second in as many years. Notre Dame edged Michigan State by just six points behind a strong performance from junior Jade Barber, among others, who won the 60-meter hurdles (8.24 seconds), finished second in the 60-meter dash (7.64) and ran a strong opening leg for the 4×400-meter relay that took home another gold.