Cross country season opens Friday in Bozeman

Friday, September 2

Bozeman, Mont.

7 PM

Montana

MSU Bobcat Twilight

8/31/2022 5:15:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Schedule Men's Roster Women's Roster

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana opens its 2022 cross country season on Friday in Bozeman, with the Grizzlies running in the MSU Bobcat Twilight. The 5K meet, which will feature athletes from Montana, Montana State and Carroll College, is slated to begin at 7:15 p.m. for the men and 7:35 p.m. for the women.

Montana will be sending eight men and eight women to the meet, and will be coached by new track & field coach Doug Fraley – who will serve as the head cross country coach until a permanent distance coach is hired – and AJ Eckmann, a former Montana student-athlete.

"I've been here for about 8 days, and it's been an absolute blur, but the thing I've been blown away by is how warm the welcome has been, how helpful people have been and how many people who are associated with the program have reached out and wished me luck," Fraley said. "It's been overwhelming in such a good way."

While Fraley is new, the cross country team was in good hands over the summer, being guided by Eckmann and former Colorado distance runner Erin Clark, who both volunteered their time to assist in the transition.

"It was a real pleasant surprise to get here and to see that the groups had been training and that AJ and Erin were so involved," Fraley said. "While it wasn't an ideal situation for those men and women, we're so fortunate that these two volunteers had been holding down the fort."

Among those competing on Friday are six returning women and five returning men.

Beatrix Frissell is Montana's top female returner, placing 37^th at the 2021 Big Sky Championships (17:43). Bridget Boyle (73^rd), Jaylyn Hallgrimson (79^th) and Abby Sherwood (82^nd) also competed at last fall's Championships and will run this weekend.

Additionally, returners Leah Gath and Kayla Ingraham are slated to run on Friday, as well as newcomers MacKenzie Dean and Iris McKean.

On the men's side, Will Dauenhauer (74^th) is the only entry who competed at last year's Big Sky Championships (74^th, 26:50).

Nathan Carter, Casey Crouch, Rogelio Mares and Brady Woods are all back, after running parts of the 2020 or 2021 seasons. Lane Cole, Josh Haynes and Colin Shaules will be making their cross country debuts.

Montana was picked to finish seventh out of 10 teams in both the men's and women's preseason coaches' polls, which were announced last week by the Big Sky Conference.

"It's always fun after a summer of training to see how we perform against other competition," Fraley said. "Friday is a perfect early-season test to see where we are when we line up against other teams and let it rip. We can come back from this and know exactly where we are. From there, we'll develop our expectations based off of what we see on Friday."