Cross country season ends

Friday, November 11

Logan, Utah

Montana

NCAA Mountain Regional

11/11/2016 2:46:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

By: Montana Sports Information

Results

Senior Reagan Colyer finished 59th to lead the Montana women's cross country team to a 16th-place finish Friday at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships at Logan, Utah.

Sophomore Jonathan Eastwood, who came through in 74th place, led the Griz men's team. Montana finished 17th.

The women's team entered Friday's race ranked 14th in the region but finished two spots lower. The Grizzlies were bettered by a pair of unranked teams in Montana State and Texas Tech.

"The course was deceptively challenging," said assistant coach Matty Bennett. "It looks pretty flat, but there are a lot of long, gradual uphills and we were at a higher altitude than we're used to. It was definitely a challenge for us today."

As has been the case all season, Montana raced in two packs. Sophomore Jessica Bailey finished 60th in a time of 21:42, one second behind Colyer (21:41). Sophomore Emily Pittis (21:59) came through in 69th place.

Sophomore Rosa Hardarson (22:56) led the second pack, coming through in 107th place. Senior Maddie Nagle (23:12) was 116th, senior Lauryn Wate (23:19) finished 118th, and sophomore Bridget Creel (23:52) came through in 129th in the 135-runner field.

"Our two packs, our top three and our next four, worked well together throughout the race," said Bennett.

"We had higher hopes coming into this race, but when we look at the entire season, I'm really pleased and really proud of what these girls have accomplished. They worked really well together all season and all showed so much improvement."

Colorado, the nation's top-ranked team, put its top five in the top 10 overall to easily win the team title over New Mexico and Air Force. Former Griz Makena Morley, who finished fourth, was the Buffaloes' top runner.

New Mexico's Alice Wright won the region title in a time of 19:59. She finished 18 seconds ahead of UTEP's Winny Koech.

Weber State's Ellie Child was the Big Sky's top finisher, coming through in ninth place. The Wildcats finished seventh.

In the men's race, Eastwood, sophomore Dillon May and freshman Noah Kells were all racing a 10-kilometer cross country course for the first time.

"We really stressed for everyone to be conservative and run their own races," said Bennett. "The Mountain Region is the deepest region in the country. The depth up front is crazy. I think our guys did a really good job of sticking to the race plan."

Eastwood ran a time of 33:00. Junior Nathan Wellington (33:25) was 80th, junior Paden Alexander (34:45) was 103rd, Kells (35:38) was 110th, and May (35:46) was 111th in the field of 113.

The Grizzlies finished 17th out of 17 teams.

"The guys showed a lot more heart than they did at conference," said Bennett. "I'm pleased with today's effort.

"Seventeenth out of 17 might not look very good, but we decided to take a team because we value the hard work these guys have put in this season. Rewarding that effort was our main motivation, along with getting the experience."

Northern Arizona, Colorado and BYU are first, second and third in the national rankings and showed their strength and depth on Friday. The Lumberjacks, who had three runners in the top seven, won the race with 60 points. The Buffaloes had 76, the Cougars totaled 79.

NAU's Futsum Zienasellassie won the race in a time of 30:54. The top six runners all broke 31 minutes.