Cross country teams competing at three meets Saturday
9/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Cross Country
The University of Montana cross country teams will split in three this weekend, with the women traveling to Eugene, Ore., for the Oregon Invitational, the men traveling to Salem, Ore., for the Willamette Invitational, and a handful of runners from both teams traveling to Helena, Mont., for the Carroll Open.
Race I: The UM women will compete at Oregon's Bill Dellinger Invitational. The six-kilometer race starts at 10:15 a.m. (MT) at the Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Ore. The loaded 15-school field is made up of eight women's teams that rank in the top five in their respective region: Arkansas (No. 1, South Central), BYU (No. 2 Mountain), Georgia (No. 2, South), Colorado State (No. 3, Mountain), Washington (No. 3, West), Oregon (No. 4, West), Wake Forest (No. 4, Southeast) and Marquette (No. 5, Great Lakes).
Arkansas, which won the inaugural Dellinger Invitational last fall, was fifth at the 2006 NCAA Championships, Georgia was 15th and BYU was 22nd.
Also joining No. 7 Montana from the Mountain Region are No. 6 Utah State, No. 10 New Mexico and No. 12 UTEP. USU won the Montana State Invitational on Sept. 15 with 29 points. The Grizzlies were second with 37 points.
Rounding out the field are Portland (No. 6, West), UCLA (No. 10, West) and Oregon State (No. 12, West).
Competing for Montana will be senior Kaci Calaway, sophomores Brooke Andrus and Kara DeWalt and freshmen Katrina Drennen, Bridgette Hoenke, Mary Kettering, Kesslee Payne and Anna Stone.
"This is a chance for us to go against some highly ranked teams from our region and some of the top-ranked teams in the country and see how we stack up," Montana cross country coach Tom Raunig said. "It will be critical for us to put a good race together. For us to go to the NCAA Championships, we'll need to probably be in the top five in our region and have picked up some wins over some highly ranked teams from other parts of the country. This is a meet that gives us a chance to do that."
Race II: The Montana men will race at Willamette's 33rd annual Charles Bowles Invitational. The eight-kilometer Gold race will start at 11:20 a.m. (MT) at WU's McCulloch Stadium and Bush Park. The Gold race is comprised of numerous Division I programs in addition to junior colleges, club teams and unattached runners.
In addition to the Grizzlies (No. 7, Mountain), four other regionally ranked teams will be competing: Portland (No. 3, West), Washington (No. 6, West), Washington State (No. 7, West) and Idaho (No. 14, West).
Competing for Montana will be senior Duncan Hendrick, juniors Dan Bingham, Mac Bloom, Dennis Brands and Eli Hermann and sophomores Michael Fisher and Steven Gimpel.
"The men's race in Salem has some good, strong Division I teams, so we're excited to see how we stack up against them," Raunig said. "We also want to continue to get a higher region ranking and post some good times. On a flat, fast course like this, our goal will be to break a 25-minute average for our top five runners."
Race III: Juniors Zach Betz and Jesse Loether, sophomore Leigh Fredrickson and freshman Sean Clark will travel to Helena Saturday for the Carroll Open. Both races will be over the same five-kilometer course, with the women starting at 10 a.m. and the men at 10:30 a.m. The race will be at the Old Broadwater Hotel Fields and will include the Grizzlies and Saints plus Great Falls, Rocky Mountain, Flathead Community College and the University of Lethbridge.
"We'll be looking at their performance at Carroll and determining if we need to move one of them on to the team for the trip to Pre-Nationals (on Oct. 13)," Raunig said. "Everyone should have plenty of motivation this weekend. The athletes at Carroll have the motivation to try to make the trip to Indiana (for Pre-Nationals) and the folks that are running six and seven for us out in Oregon know that they need to put together a good race or they'll be bumped out for the Indiana trip."
Men Rocket Up Seven Spots, Women Remain the Same: The Montana men's cross country team, aided by a second-place finish at the Montana State Invitational on Sept. 15, moved up from their preseason region ranking of No. 14 to No. 7 in this week's poll. The top six are Colorado, UTEP, Weber State, Northern Arizona, BYU and Air Force.
"The men were very determined (at the MSU Invitational) that they belonged higher in the rankings," Raunig said. "They were excited to hear the new rankings, but it's early so it doesn't mean much. We just need to keep it going."
The women finished second at Montana State to Utah State and remained No. 7. The Aggies jumped from No. 13 in the preseason rankings to No. 6 this week, while Weber State, which had been No. 4, dropped to No. 8 after the Grizzlies defeated the Wildcats at MSU.
Making up the top five are Colorado, BYU, Colorado State, Texas Tech and Northern Arizona.
"Utah State finished ahead of us at Bozeman and we jumped ahead of Weber, so we kind of took Weber's spot and stayed the same at No. 7 while Utah State jumped over us," Raunig said. "We'll get to see a lot of teams from the region this weekend at Oregon, with New Mexico, BYU, Colorado State and Utah State, so it will be a good preview of the regional race and a good indication of how we stack up and whether we have a realistic shot of moving up."
Women Picked Second, Men Third in Preseason Polls: The Montana women, coming off a second-place finish at the 2006 Big Sky Conference Championships, were picked for second in the 2007 preseason coaches poll. The Grizzlies, who picked up four of the nine first-place votes, tied for second with Weber State, which got one first-place vote. Both teams earned 56 points to finish narrowly behind Northern Arizona, which got the other four first-place votes and totaled 57 points.
Montana State (42 points) and Idaho State (32 points) rounded out the top five.
Weber State won the 2006 championship, followed by Montana, Northern Arizona, Montana State and Idaho State.
The Grizzly men were picked third after their fourth-place finish in 2006. Montana and Montana State tied for third with 46 points. Northern Arizona was also atop the men's poll, getting six first-place votes and 62 points. Weber State was second with the remaining three first-place votes and 59 points. Idaho State rounded out the top five with 32 points.
Weber State won the 2006 championship, followed by NAU, MSU, Montana and Sacramento State.
Race I: The UM women will compete at Oregon's Bill Dellinger Invitational. The six-kilometer race starts at 10:15 a.m. (MT) at the Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Ore. The loaded 15-school field is made up of eight women's teams that rank in the top five in their respective region: Arkansas (No. 1, South Central), BYU (No. 2 Mountain), Georgia (No. 2, South), Colorado State (No. 3, Mountain), Washington (No. 3, West), Oregon (No. 4, West), Wake Forest (No. 4, Southeast) and Marquette (No. 5, Great Lakes).
Arkansas, which won the inaugural Dellinger Invitational last fall, was fifth at the 2006 NCAA Championships, Georgia was 15th and BYU was 22nd.
Also joining No. 7 Montana from the Mountain Region are No. 6 Utah State, No. 10 New Mexico and No. 12 UTEP. USU won the Montana State Invitational on Sept. 15 with 29 points. The Grizzlies were second with 37 points.
Rounding out the field are Portland (No. 6, West), UCLA (No. 10, West) and Oregon State (No. 12, West).
Competing for Montana will be senior Kaci Calaway, sophomores Brooke Andrus and Kara DeWalt and freshmen Katrina Drennen, Bridgette Hoenke, Mary Kettering, Kesslee Payne and Anna Stone.
"This is a chance for us to go against some highly ranked teams from our region and some of the top-ranked teams in the country and see how we stack up," Montana cross country coach Tom Raunig said. "It will be critical for us to put a good race together. For us to go to the NCAA Championships, we'll need to probably be in the top five in our region and have picked up some wins over some highly ranked teams from other parts of the country. This is a meet that gives us a chance to do that."
Race II: The Montana men will race at Willamette's 33rd annual Charles Bowles Invitational. The eight-kilometer Gold race will start at 11:20 a.m. (MT) at WU's McCulloch Stadium and Bush Park. The Gold race is comprised of numerous Division I programs in addition to junior colleges, club teams and unattached runners.
In addition to the Grizzlies (No. 7, Mountain), four other regionally ranked teams will be competing: Portland (No. 3, West), Washington (No. 6, West), Washington State (No. 7, West) and Idaho (No. 14, West).
Competing for Montana will be senior Duncan Hendrick, juniors Dan Bingham, Mac Bloom, Dennis Brands and Eli Hermann and sophomores Michael Fisher and Steven Gimpel.
"The men's race in Salem has some good, strong Division I teams, so we're excited to see how we stack up against them," Raunig said. "We also want to continue to get a higher region ranking and post some good times. On a flat, fast course like this, our goal will be to break a 25-minute average for our top five runners."
Race III: Juniors Zach Betz and Jesse Loether, sophomore Leigh Fredrickson and freshman Sean Clark will travel to Helena Saturday for the Carroll Open. Both races will be over the same five-kilometer course, with the women starting at 10 a.m. and the men at 10:30 a.m. The race will be at the Old Broadwater Hotel Fields and will include the Grizzlies and Saints plus Great Falls, Rocky Mountain, Flathead Community College and the University of Lethbridge.
"We'll be looking at their performance at Carroll and determining if we need to move one of them on to the team for the trip to Pre-Nationals (on Oct. 13)," Raunig said. "Everyone should have plenty of motivation this weekend. The athletes at Carroll have the motivation to try to make the trip to Indiana (for Pre-Nationals) and the folks that are running six and seven for us out in Oregon know that they need to put together a good race or they'll be bumped out for the Indiana trip."
Men Rocket Up Seven Spots, Women Remain the Same: The Montana men's cross country team, aided by a second-place finish at the Montana State Invitational on Sept. 15, moved up from their preseason region ranking of No. 14 to No. 7 in this week's poll. The top six are Colorado, UTEP, Weber State, Northern Arizona, BYU and Air Force.
"The men were very determined (at the MSU Invitational) that they belonged higher in the rankings," Raunig said. "They were excited to hear the new rankings, but it's early so it doesn't mean much. We just need to keep it going."
The women finished second at Montana State to Utah State and remained No. 7. The Aggies jumped from No. 13 in the preseason rankings to No. 6 this week, while Weber State, which had been No. 4, dropped to No. 8 after the Grizzlies defeated the Wildcats at MSU.
Making up the top five are Colorado, BYU, Colorado State, Texas Tech and Northern Arizona.
"Utah State finished ahead of us at Bozeman and we jumped ahead of Weber, so we kind of took Weber's spot and stayed the same at No. 7 while Utah State jumped over us," Raunig said. "We'll get to see a lot of teams from the region this weekend at Oregon, with New Mexico, BYU, Colorado State and Utah State, so it will be a good preview of the regional race and a good indication of how we stack up and whether we have a realistic shot of moving up."
Women Picked Second, Men Third in Preseason Polls: The Montana women, coming off a second-place finish at the 2006 Big Sky Conference Championships, were picked for second in the 2007 preseason coaches poll. The Grizzlies, who picked up four of the nine first-place votes, tied for second with Weber State, which got one first-place vote. Both teams earned 56 points to finish narrowly behind Northern Arizona, which got the other four first-place votes and totaled 57 points.
Montana State (42 points) and Idaho State (32 points) rounded out the top five.
Weber State won the 2006 championship, followed by Montana, Northern Arizona, Montana State and Idaho State.
The Grizzly men were picked third after their fourth-place finish in 2006. Montana and Montana State tied for third with 46 points. Northern Arizona was also atop the men's poll, getting six first-place votes and 62 points. Weber State was second with the remaining three first-place votes and 59 points. Idaho State rounded out the top five with 32 points.
Weber State won the 2006 championship, followed by NAU, MSU, Montana and Sacramento State.
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