Montana Invitational Saturday morning at UM Golf Course

Saturday, October 3

Missoula, Mont.

Montana

Montana Invitational

Montana Invitational Saturday morning at UM Golf Course

10/1/2015 4:27:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

By: Montana Sports Information

2015 Performance List

The Griz cross country teams will compete at home for the only time this fall when they host the Montana Invitational Saturday morning at the UM Golf Course. The women's five-kilometer race starts at 10:30 a.m., the men's eight-kilometer race at 11:15 a.m.

Joining Montana at the meet will be Montana State and Idaho, Gonzaga's men's team, plus Carroll, Montana-Western, MSU Northern, Rocky Mountain and the College of Idaho.

Women's Preview

Montana freshman Makena Morley ran away from the field and raced to victory two weeks ago at the Montana State Invitational, and she'll be a heavy favorite again on Saturday.

Morley covered the three-mile course at the Bridger Creek Golf Course in 16:43 to finish more than 40 seconds ahead of the field, which included runners from Montana State, Utah, Utah State and Idaho State.

And if it takes having a headliner like Morley to bring people out to watch Saturday's race, that's fine with coach Collin Fehr.

"We're trying to build a stronger connection with the running community and get them invested in our program. One way to help do that is to get a Montana runner who is highly recognizable like Makena is. She brings instant recognition," said Fehr of his runner from Bigfork.

What those fans will find will be a wide-open field. Only two top-10 finishers from a year ago -- MSU's Rachel Sullivan placed eighth last October, Carroll's Leah Esposito was ninth -- will be back, partly due to graduation, partly because Eastern Washington is not returning.

Montana State used better balance across its top five to edge Eastern Washington for the team title at last year's race, 46-57. Gonzaga (64) was third, Montana (90), which was led by Keli Dennehy's third-place finish, was fourth.

While Morley finished first overall two weeks ago at Montana State, Montana did not place any other runners in the top 25. The Grizzlies' next seven finishers were all within 26 seconds of one another, but they were too far down the standings to help the team do better than fourth place with 120 points.

Montana State, which has its own standout freshman in Alyssa Snyder, who finished third at the MSU Invitational behind Morley and Utah State's Kashley Carter, placed third at its home meet with 80 points, finishing behind Utah (35) and Utah State (41).

The Bobcats are ranked No. 10 in this week's USTFCCCA Mountain Region poll. The Grizzlies are No. 13.

"Ideally we'll have the same type of pack but they'll be higher up the overall standings," said Fehr. "It will be interesting to see how it plays out, because MSU likes to be pretty tactical. They usually sit back and feel things out, then hit the last part of the race hard.

"If they do that, I think it can be to our favor, because it will give us confidence that we're in the mix and running with them early on and can hang with them down the stretch. But we can't plan for that. We have to focus on our strengths and run together and try to have the best performance we can have."

Led by Morley, three freshmen were among the team's top four at Montana State. Emily Pittis finished 26th among Division I runners in a time of 18:15, while Bridget Creel was 30th in 18:28. Sophomore Emily Cheroske edged Creel by a few tenths of a second to place 29th.

Junior Lauryn Wate led the next pack of four, who finished between 18:38 and 18:41.

Men's Preview

Like the Montana women, the Griz men were led by underclassmen at their season-opening meet. Freshman Gavin Hasty placed fourth among Division I runners over the five-mile course in a time of 26:11. Sophomore Nathan Wellington was eighth (26:28), freshman Jonathan Eastwood 13th (26:36).

Montana, with 87 points, finished a close fourth behind Utah State (45), Montana State (77) and Idaho State (85).

The good news: junior Adam Wollant, 17th in 26:47, and sophomore Paden Alexander, 28th in 27:21, both had off races. Not necessarily good news for them, but good news in that enough points could have been trimmed off the Grizzlies' team score that a second-place finish was possible.

"Paden had an off day, to put it quite simply," said Fehr, whose team is unranked in the region. Montana State is No. 13, Gonzaga is No. 13 in the West Region. "And Adam thought he could have been higher up. If we get Paden on, that's a very solid group, and we should have a chance at beating MSU."

With Montana State's Jake Turner, who finished third at last year's Montana Invitational, sitting out Saturday's race to recover from injury, Carroll's David Thor, eighth last year, will be the only top-10 finisher from last year lining up Saturday.

That should make Montana State freshman Justice Lamer, runner-up to Utah State's Colby Wilson at the MSU Invitational, the slight favorite, but that's without factoring in any Gonzaga or Idaho runners.

And Hasty was just six seconds behind Lamer two weeks ago.

"This weekend I want our guys thinking, Hey, one of us has a chance of winning it," said Fehr. "And that could be any one of our top five if things come together for them. They weren't that far behind any of the MSU guys.

"We want to have a tight spread, but we've already shown we can do that. Why not take it up a notch? Why not get in a position to go out and win this thing? Who knows if it will happen, but let's at least have our minds open to the possibility."

Upcoming: Most of Montana's athletes will compete at the Inland Empire Challenge at Lewiston, Idaho, on Saturday, Oct. 17. A small group will be in Louisville, Ky., the same day for NCAA Pre-Nationals, which will be run on the same course at E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park as the national meet in late November.