Montana
Big Sky Conference Championships
Dennehy finishes 11th at Big Sky cross country championships
11/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Cross Country
Results
Redshirt senior Keli Dennehy finished 11th Saturday to lead the Montana cross country teams at the Big Sky Conference championships at Grand Forks, N.D. The Griz men finished seventh, the UM women were eighth.
Northern Arizona swept both races, which were held at UND's Ray Richards Golf Course. Southern Utah and Weber State finished second and third in the men's eight-kilometer race, Weber State and Montana State were second and third in the women's five-kilometer race.
"Every time we come to this meet, we're reminded how competitive this conference is," said UM coach Collin Fehr. "To sum our day up, we've got to be more prepared for championship racing."
Dennehy, who earned All-Big Sky Conference honors as a true freshman with a fourth-place finish in 2010, was hoping to end her career with another all-conference finish, but she came up one place and two seconds short, clocking a time of 17:38.
"Keli was in the mix," said Fehr. "She ran a great first mile and a half, then fell out of the top 10 and ran in that position for most of the back half of the race. She had a tremendous kick down the stretch, but she just waited a bit too long and ran out of course.
"She was a little disappointed, because she definitely had more to give today. But still, a good effort for her."
Nobody else for Montana broke 18 minutes. Senior Heather Fraley finished 30th (18:06), redshirt sophomore Lauryn Wate was 40th (18:16), senior Carly Wilczynski was 59th (18:40) and freshman Christina Seas was 62nd (18:42).
"For the rest of the girls, it was kind of a weird race," said Fehr. "Keli got out fast, but the rest of the team was way back at the start, so they had to make up a lot of ground in the middle portion of the race, and they ran out of steam.
"If we had to do it over again, we would have made sure the gals got out a lot faster and then extended themselves a little better. They need to ride that red line and embrace the discomfort."
Eastern Washington's Sarah Reiter won the women's race in a time of 17:05. Southern Utah's Ashley Hawks was second in 17:09, Sacramento State's Chloe Berlioux was third in 17:18.
The Montana men had their best team effort of the season, with just a 28-second spread between the team's No. 1 and 5 runners, but no Grizzly finished in the top 35 overall.
Redshirt junior Mark Messmer was 36th (25:55), freshman Nathan Wellington was 37th (25:58), senior Ben Williamson was 41st (26:03), redshirt sophomore Adam Wollant was 44th (26:10), and redshirt junior David Norris was 50th (26:23).
"The men actually had their best team effort of the season by far," said Fehr. "We didn't have a high placing, but they were all right there working together throughout the race. It was really cool to see, because we've been shooting for that.
"We've just got to find a way to move up the pack a little bit. If we can keep a tight spread and use each other like we did today, we definitely can start competing with the top half of this conference."
Futsum Zienasellassie (24:07), Matt McElroy (24:08) and Caleb Hoover (24:12) gave Northern Arizona a 1-2-3 finish, and the Lumberjacks, who won with a total of just 24 points, placed their top five in the top 10 overall.
Montana will compete at the NCAA Mountain Regional at Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday, Nov. 14.
Players Mentioned
