Griz racing in Idaho on Saturday

Saturday, October 13

Lewiston, Idaho

Montana

Inland Empire Challenge

10/11/2018 11:20:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

2018 Performance List

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana cross country teams will compete for the final time before the Big Sky Conference Championships when the Grizzlies travel to Idaho this week for the Inland Empire Challenge in Lewiston.

The meet -- the women's five-kilometer race starts at 11 a.m. (MT), the men's eight-kilometer race at 11:45 a.m. (MT) -- which is being hosted by Lewis-Clark State, will take place on Saturday morning at the LCSC Cross Country Course.

The Big Sky Championships will be held on Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento, Calif. Montana will also send runners to the NCAA Mountain Regional, hosted this year in Provo, Utah, on Friday, Nov. 9.

More than 15 teams are expected to compete on Saturday, a handful of them regional Division I programs that Montana has faced previously this fall. Athletes from Eastern Washington, Gonzaga and Washington State will be racing.

The course is one of the flatter, faster courses around, which should benefit Montana's women's team in particular, which is made up largely of underclassmen.

"This course definitely suits us better," said coach Vicky Pounds, who will travel with full squads from both her men's and women's programs. "Having a young team, they're not as strong as they are going to be their second and third year."

The Montana women have finished second at each meet at which they've competed this fall, coming in behind Idaho at both the Clash of the Inland Northwest in Moscow, Idaho, and the Montana Invitational two weeks ago. The Grizzlies were second behind the Bobcats at the Montana State Classic.

Among the athletes racing on Saturday will be fifth-year senior Megan Franz, who hasn't competed for the Grizzlies in a cross country race in nearly two years. Her last race was the 2016 Big Sky Championships.

She studied abroad last fall and is coming off an injury from the outdoor track season that has had her doing different workouts than those of her teammates.

"We'll see where she's at. She's been doing her own thing as she builds up to where the rest of the girls are," said Pounds. "I had a sneak peek at our workout on Friday, and she looked good."

Freshman Erica Simison has led Montana and finished in the top seven overall at all three meets this fall. Sophomore Madeline Hamilton was second behind Simison at the first two races before missing the Montana Invitational with an injury. She will be back racing on Saturday.

With Hamilton sidelined, freshman Hannah Wylie stepped up and finished second for the Grizzlies at their home meet two weeks ago. Samantha Engebretsen has been Montana's No. 3 runner three times. Jessica Bailey has come in fourth the last two races since her own return from injury.

"The biggest change for the women since the start of the season is their team unity. They are starting to gel and really get to know each other," said Pounds, who knew it would be a process given the number of new faces on the team.

"They are coming together as a team and starting to have a little more fun at practices. We have a great group of freshmen girls who have a variety of different personalities. It works well for the team."

The men's team -- third at the Clash of the Inland Northwest and Montana State Classic, fourth at the Montana Invitational -- hasn't had the finishes the women's team has had, but a deeper dive into the results show some impressive improvements.

At last fall's Montana Invitational, the team was led by Jonathan Eastwood, who ran a 26:05. Nobody else was faster than 26:30. Two weeks ago on the same course, both Dillon May (25:59) and Nathan Wellington (26:04) had faster times than Eastwood's from the year before.

And Kyle Peterson ran a 26:10, a full 104 seconds better than he raced as a freshman the year before.

Montana's team finish at its home meet, coming in behind Gonzaga, Idaho and Eastern Washington, was skewed by the presence of the Zags, who dominated the race, the absence of Kyle Kredo, who was the team's No. 2 runner at Montana State, and an illness to freshman Will Dauenhauer, who raced anyways.

"Having Gonzaga in that race kind of overshadowed the rest of the field," said Pounds. "We may have finished a little farther back, but you have to look at the progression.

"Our training is going well and everyone is progressing. And we definitely have more depth at a higher level, so what more could I ask for? Once we taper and rest a bit, I think it's all going to come together."

Led by its two senior, May and Nathan Wellington, with the rest of the team underclassmen in eligibility, it's become the type of program Pounds has long wanted but just now seeing.

"After every hard workout, we have a team meeting," said Pounds. "And then the guys have their own, separate meeting, where they pass around a baton to the person who gets honors for the workout.

"That's something they've done on their own, and I've never had anything close to that on the guys' side. It's pretty exciting."