Griz open season Saturday morning in Bozeman

The Montana cross country teams will open their 2015 seasons Saturday morning when the Grizzlies compete at the 34th annual Bozeman Running Company Montana State Invitational at the Bridger Creek Golf Course in Bozeman.

The men's five-mile race will start at 9 a.m., the women's three-mile race at 9:45 a.m. Ten schools will be competing, including the two Montana universities, Idaho State and Utah State. Utah is sending its women's team.

All 11 men on Montana's fall roster will compete, though freshmen Karsten Pease and Emmette Dustybull, both of whom are redshirting, will compete unattached.

Redshirt freshman Rosa Hardarson will be the only women's runner not competing, leaving the Grizzlies with a race-day squad of nine.

The Grizzlies will host the Montana Invitational on Oct. 3 and compete at the Inland Empire Challenge in Lewiston, Idaho, and NCAA Pre-Nationals in Louisville, Ky., on Oct. 17 leading up to the Big Sky Conference championships, which will be held in Cedar City, Utah, on Oct. 31.

And Saturday morning starts it all off.

"Saturday will be the same as any other meet. We'll go into it trying to have peak performances for where we're at in the season," said UM coach Collin Fehr.

"As long as everyone is focused and brings the max effort that they need, I feel like we can get out of it what we need to. Then we can work with that for a couple of weeks of practice and do some more training to be ready for the next one."

Women's preview

The men's race comes first on Saturday, but the women's preview comes first on Friday, because the women's race has a few more interesting storylines, starting with the head-to-head team competition.

All five Division I teams are ranked between No. 5 and No. 12 in the NCAA Mountain Region poll. Saturday will either reinforce those rankings or result in a different-looking poll next week.

Montana State enters the season ranked fifth, Utah is eighth, Idaho State is 10th, Montana 11th and Utah State 12th.

Wyoming, which is not competing this year, won last year's race by a tiny margin over Utah, 31-33. Montana State, with a score of 87, was a distant third. The Bobcats were followed by Montana (101) and Utah State (105).

Only three of the athletes who ran to top-10 finishes last year are back. Most notably Utah sophomore Sarah Feeny, who won last year's race in a time of 16:56, returns, as does Utah junior Jessica Sams, eighth last year in a time of 17:33, and MSU sophomore Caroline Hardin, ninth in 17:35.

That trio will be joined by Montana freshman Makena Morley, who makes her collegiate debut as one of the race favorites.

The race within the race: Feeny was last year's winner when she was able to put in a steady, controlled effort for two miles, then pull away from everyone down the stretch. Morley will look to set a more aggressive early pace, which will be at odds with what Feeny prefers. Should be fun.

Men's preview

Without the Utah men racing, only two of the four Division I programs competing Saturday will enter the race ranked. Utah State is No. 11 in the Mountain Region, Montana State is 12th.

Idaho State and Montana are outside the top 15, but neither Utah State nor Montana State is ranked so high that they can't be knocked off.

Wyoming won last year's men's race, with Montana State out-pointing Utah State by three to take second. The Grizzlies were well back in fourth.

The top returning individual finisher from last year is Montana State's Jake Turner, who finished seventh in a time of 25:15.

Montana's Nathan Wellington, now a sophomore, is the Grizzlies' top returner from last year. He covered the course in 26:37 to finish 23rd, just behind teammate Mark Messmer, who clocked a 26:28 to finish in 22nd.

"I think we can surprise some people," said Fehr about the upcoming season. "That's probably what you're supposed to say coming off the history we've had the last few years, but I feel like the team dynamic that we have is very healthy right now. The energy and enthusiasm should lead to good things.

"But for right now, we're not trying to think as much about the results as much as we're focused on performance and achieving our potential."

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Players Mentioned

Emmette Dustybull

Rosa Hardarson

Mark Messmer

Karsten Pease

Nathan Wellington

University of Montana Athletics