Sixteen high school teams from across Massachusetts and Rhode Island are set to take off this Saturday morning through the Manuel Correllus State Forest in the 13th annual Martha’s Vineyard Cross Country Invitational.

In the past, the event has attracted nearly 800 runners, and this year was slated to bring the same size crowd. But the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian led to canceled boats and a forced postponement of the meet, originally scheduled for last Saturday.

On Monday, Coach Joe Schroeder said he was hoping they would still have one third to one half of the original teams. The official list of schools participating includes New Bedford, Notre Dame Academy, Plymouth North, Shepherd Hill, Barrington, Blackstone-Millville Regional, Braintree, Brockton, Bishop Feehan, B.M.C. Durfee, Woburn, Oliver Ames, North Attleboro, Doherty, Whitman Hanson and the Vineyard.

Opening the season against the largest field of competition they will face all year will be a test, but should help prepare the team for a new league schedule against teams that Coach Schroeder says are “a much higher caliber of competition” compared to last fall’s schedule.

Coach Schroeder said he is looking to build on last year’ championship-caliber season and has confidence in his young but accomplished team. Last year the girls cross country team won their first-ever Eastern Massachusetts division five championship, and went on to finish as the fifth-best team in the commonwealth.

The boys team placed fifth in the Eastern Massachusetts division five championship and finished their season ranked as the ninth-best in the commonwealth. Both teams achieved their rankings despite being very young squads. As eighth graders, Eloise and Adrienne Christy played critical roles in their team’s success.

Coach Schroeder said the Christy girls have “invaluable experience racing at the highest level you can race at, as eighth graders, and were able to handle it.”

While this year’s schedule isn’t necessarily a gauntlet of the best teams in the state, the Vineyard’s divisional opponents “all have at one point had strong teams, and they all have a good tradition of cross country success,” Coach Schroeder said.

“That sets us up so much better,” he added. “We were creating the competition within our team at our meets last year. This year it’s already there for us, there’s a higher bar, and we’re psyched for it. It’s going to be fun.”

The Martha’s Vineyard Invitational takes place on Saturday, Sept. 14. Freshman teams begin at noon; junior varsity girls, 12:30 p.m.; junior varsity boys. 1:15 p.m.; varsity girls, 1:45 p.m.; varsity boys, 2:15 p.m.