Cross country season comes to a close in Utah

Friday, November 15

Salt Lake City, Utah

Montana

NCAA Mountain Regional

11/15/2019 4:18:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

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By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana cross country teams saw their seasons come to a close on Friday at the NCAA Mountain Regional in Salt Lake City.

Racing at the Rose Park Golf Course, the women's team finished 16th out of 19 schools, the men's squad 19th out of 19 teams.

Neither team was going to advance to the NCAA Championships in two weeks, but senior June Eastwood and freshman Beatrix Frissell both had eyes on a top-25 finish and possible trip to nationals as an individual.

Frissell would finish 57th in a time of 21:28 on the six-kilometer course, Eastwood 60th in a time of 21:32.

"June and Bea were short of the top 25, but they got after it. They executed the race plan exactly how you would want," said first-year coach Clint May.

"In the end there was just some excellent competition that was better than we were today."

Seniors Samantha Engebretsen (79th, 21:55) and Emily Pittis (90th, 22:13) both had top-100 finishes as the Grizzlies placed in front of New Mexico State, Idaho State and Nevada.

"I felt like our women ran really well today," said May. "That's why I'm really happy at the end of the day."

BYU won the region title, edging out New Mexico, which had the top two individual finishers. Air Force was third. Northern Arizona was the top Big Sky finisher, placing sixth.

In the strongest, deepest men's region in the nation, Montana was unable to place anyone in the top 100.

Northern Arizona took the top three individual spots and put its top five in the top nine to easily win the team title over Colorado and BYU. They are the nation's top three ranked teams.

Sophomores Hunter May (105th, 33:47) and Will Dauenhauer (107th, 33:50) led Montana on the 10-kilometer course. The Grizzlies competed with four underclassmen and a junior.

"They gave it their best shot. We didn't have the type of day we would have hoped for, but I'm certainly pleased with them," said May.

"I'm excited that I get to work with this group for a lot longer. They are all younger. We'll see where it goes from here."