Coming off All-Big Sky debut, Frissell wants more

When Beatrix Frissell finished 10th at the Big Sky Conference cross country championships in Greeley, Colo., last November to earn all-league honors as a freshman, it wasn't a high point. It was a starting point.

That's why second-year Montana coach Clint May claims, even after more than two decades of working with distance runners, so many of them champions, coaching Frissell is about as good as it gets.

"She's as much of an enjoyment to coach as anyone I've ever coached," says May, whose teams were picked seventh (women) and tied for eighth (men) in the Big Sky preseason coaches' polls that came out on Wednesday.

"She has this super-competitive nature but also has this nature that is team-oriented. She has such good balance. That's what I really, really like about Bea."

Frissell, from Polson, would go on to lead the Grizzlies two weeks later at the NCAA Mountain Regional in Salt Lake City, placing 57th overall.

The race capped a highlight-filled freshman season for Frissell, who won the Clash of the Inland Northwest in Cheney, Wash., in her college debut.

She would finish in the top 10 at her first five collegiate races, placing third at the Montana State Classic, second at the Montana Invitational and ninth at the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational before earning All-Big Sky honors in Greeley on a snowy, sloppy course.

It left Frissell, who would place fifth in the 5,000 meters at the Big Sky indoor track and field championships in February, happy but not satisfied. She knows there is more out there to be achieved.

"She was very happy with last year but not content. She had a good first year but wants more," says May. "I don't think Bea would be satisfied with a continuation of top-10 performances in the Big Sky Conference without giving everything she has to get to the national meet.

"I feel both pressured and honored to be able to work with someone who is so driven and has such high goals."

Frissell is one of the reasons the Montana women were picked seventh in the preseason poll, just a one-spot drop-off from their finish in Greeley, despite losing three of their top four finishers from the last two races of the season.

June Eastwood, who had five top-eight finishes last season, Samantha Engebretsen and Emily Pittis were all lost to graduation.

"(Seventh is) probably pretty accurate knowing we lost three really strong women. That's big on any program," said May. "They were really good runners and great teammates.

"I'm pleased that the conference looks at us as a team that will rebound and have some contributions from some younger runners coming in. I feel good about the recognition from the conference that we have a good program."

Montana won't have a senior on its roster when it's finalized a month from now, but that doesn't mean the Grizzlies will be lacking in experience.

Juniors Rachel Torrey and Hannah Wylie were both top-five runners last fall. Junior Erica Simison led Montana at four of the team's six races as a freshman in 2018.

Two of May's newcomers are Amelu Ruff, of Spokane, and Emily Foote, of Aloha, Ore.

Ruff, a graduate of North Central High, is coming off a strong finish to her final prep cross country season.

She placed third at the Washington Class 3A state meet on North Central's championship team, clocking a 17:50. A week later she ran a 17:57 while placing 13th at the Nike Cross Northwest Regional in Boise on North Spokane's runner-up team in a region that covers seven states.

North Spokane placed fifth at Nike Cross Nationals in early December.

"She was lights out at the end of the season. It would have been super fun to see what she would have done in track. She is just a great, great runner, super optimistic," says May.

Foote placed 23rd at the Oregon Class 6A state meet in November.

Her dad played baseball at Western Oregon, her mom ran at Eastern Washington, her older brother ran at Gonzaga and her older sister runs at Oregon State.

"Emily has not run quite as fast as Amelu, but what I like about Emily is her family background," says May. "She comes from a family where running has been part of the family formula.

"Both Amelu and Emily are very level-headed. I like that neither comes in with super-stardom. I just see a lot of potential. They've done well in high school. I think they are just going to keep getting better in college."

The Montana men's team, which competes in one of the strongest cross country conferences in the nation, has finished 10th or lower at the Big Sky Championships each of the last four years and hasn't been in the top five since 2011.

The Grizzlies placed last in 2019 and didn't put an individual in the top 50 in Greeley.

Still: "I love this group of guys," says May, who returns his top five from the Big Sky Championships and has been saying the same thing about his men's team since he took over the job a year ago.

May is as pragmatic as they come, which a coach needs to be when his team is in the same conference with Northern Arizona and Southern Utah, not to mention Weber State and Montana State, and that coach is just starting the process of moving up within that top-heavy hierarchy.

More than league placing, May is focused this season on the number 25. Last year he didn't have a runner break 25 minutes for an eight-kilometer race. It's only been done a handful of times by a Montana runner over the last half decade.

"Some of those other programs that are in contention to go to nationals, their five-guy average is 24 minutes, but we're not there right now," he says.

"I would not be surprised if we have seven guys go under 25 minutes this year. And that still might mean not one of them will crack into the top 15 at the conference meet because of the depth of the conference, but to me that's success."

No one was more consistent than the coach's nephew, Hunter May, last season. He led the Grizzlies at Montana State, at the Big Sky Conference Championships and at the NCAA Mountain Regional, and twice was the team's No. 2 runner.

He'll be just a junior.

Of the other athletes who were in Montana's top five at either the Big Sky or NCAA races last fall, only one, Kyle Peterson, will be a senior this year.

Will Dauenhauer and Ben Vanderbosch, both of whom led the Grizzlies in a race last season, are juniors, Truman Cowan and Maxwell Scott are sophomores.

"If we take care of how good we can be and we have five or six guys under 25 minutes, we will no longer be in the bottom three (in the Big Sky)," May says.

"The next step is having someone develop to the point where they are breaking into other teams' top five. Then we'll have a second guy do that. It might take a few years, but I'm really excited about the group of guys we have."

May added Ruff from North Central High in Spokane to his women's team. He found one of his newcomers for the men's team at the same school: Nathan Carter, who placed sixth at the Washington Class 3A state race in November.

His other newcomer will have some name recognition in the state: Simon Hill, who competed at Glacier High in Kalispell. Hill won the Class AA state championship last October.

"Just about any Big Sky school would say we did well getting Nate and Simon. They are both going to be solid, solid runners for us," says May.

Like everything about the fall, Montana's schedule is set but subject to major changes in the coming weeks.

The Big Sky Championships are scheduled for Portland in late October, the NCAA Mountain Regional for Albuquerque, N.M., in mid-November.

2020 Big Sky Conference women's cross country poll
1. Northern Arizona (11) ... 121
2. Southern Utah ... 100
3. Weber State ... 96
4. Idaho ... 90
5. Montana State ... 85
6. Idaho State ... 59
7. Montana ... 56
8. Portland State ... 44
9. Sacramento State ... 34
10. Eastern Washington ... 24
11. Northern Colorado ... 17

2020 Big Sky Conference men's cross country poll
1. Northern Arizona (11) ... 121
2. Weber State ... 106
3. Montana State ... 97
4. Southern Utah ... 94
5. Idaho ... 74
6. Idaho State ... 57
7. Portland State ... 55
t8. Eastern Washington ... 35
t8. Montana ... 35
10. Northern Colorado ... 33
11. Sacramento State ... 19

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Truman Cowan

Will Dauenhauer

June Eastwood

Samantha Engebretsen

Beatrix Frissell

Hunter May

Kyle Peterson

Emily Pittis

Maxwell Scott

Erica Simison

Rachel Torrey

Ben Vanderbosch

Hannah Wylie

Related Videos