Drennen, Reynolds pace Griz at regional
11/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
University of Montana junior Katrina Drennen placed 17th at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships Saturday in Albuquerque, N.M., to lead the Grizzlies to a 12th-place team finish. Sophomore Lynn Reynolds had a 40th-place finish to help the UM men???s team also to a 12th-place finish.
Drennen???s finish gives her an outside chance at receiving one of the four at-large individual spots awarded to the region to the NCAA championships, which will be held Monday, Nov. 23, in Terre Haute, Ind.
Colorado and Texas Tech finished first and second in the women???s team scoring, giving the Buffaloes and Red Raiders automatic bids to the NCAA meet. If BYU and UTEP, which finished third and fourth, receive at-large bids to the national meet, as expected, Drennen would be the No. 5 individual remaining.
If the NCAA also takes fifth-place New Mexico, Drennen would move up and take the region???s fourth and final individual at-large spot.
The NCAA announces the at-large team bids Sunday evening.
Drennen ran the six-kilometer course in a time of 21:28, putting her more than a minute in front of her teammates.
Sophomore Kesslee Payne was 60th in 22:33, junior Brooke Andrus was 81st in 22:59, junior Bridgette Hoenke was 88th in 23:09, senior Kim Tritz was 102nd in 23:24 and junior Kara DeWalt was 110th in 23:41.
???As a whole, the women had a good day,??? UM coach Courtney Babcock said. ???Katrina had the best race of the group. She looked strong and focused the whole race. She got out with the front pack early and kind of got swept along with the momentum, and that gave her a chance.
???We talked before the race about who she most likely had to pay attention to. There were two Colorado State girls (who would finish 10th and 13th) that were just in front of her that I knew she probably had to get.
???Katrina has a win-win attitude about it. She was second among the Big Sky runners after placing third at conference, so if she advances to nationals, great, but if this was her last race, then she knows she ran a strong race.???
The indomitable Jenny Barringer of Colorado won the women???s race in a time of 20:29.
Barringer was followed in the top five by Cecily Lemmon of BYU (20:41), Allie McLaughlin of Colorado (20:45), Risper Kimaiyo of UTEP (20:46) and Lillian Badaru of Texas Tech (20:51).
Reynolds ran the 10-kilometer men???s course in 31:50, more than a minute off his 30:47 time at regionals a year ago.
A pair of seniors followed. Mac Bloom finished 56th in 32:13, taking 22 seconds off his career best. Michael Fisher was 66th in 32:26.
Sophomore Robbie Brooks (77th, 32:44), junior Collin Fehr (82nd, 32:53) and freshman Quinton Decker (99th, 33:29) were all running their first 10-kilometer races in a Montana uniform.
???Unlike the Big Sky, when we had great races across the board, it was kind of an up and down day for the guys,??? Babcock said. ???A couple of guys had great races, and a couple of guys weren???t very happy with how they performed.
???Mac and Robbie had their best races of the season, so it was nice to see them end their seasons on a good note.
???Lynn just didn???t have it today, which happens sometimes. He was up with the front group almost to the midway point before he started to drop off a little bit.
???The guys did a good job of putting things in perspective after the race. They maybe didn???t have the race they wanted, but they know that our No. 5 runner today had a better time than the team???s No. 1 runner on the same course at the 2006 regional. That just shows the higher expectations these guys are establishing in the program.???
Big Sky Conference champion David McNeill of Northern Arizona was the overall winner in a time of 29:51. BYU???s Miles Batty was second in 30:03, New Mexico???s Jacob Kirwa was third in 30:17, Colorado???s Jordan Kyle was fourth in 30:24 and Air Force???s Justin Tyner was fifth in 30:29.
BYU won the men???s team title by a single point over Colorado. New Mexico was third, Northern Arizona fourth and UTEP fifth.
