Griz Cross Country to host Montana Invitational on Friday

The season begins in earnest for the Montana cross country teams on Friday as the Grizzlies host the Montana Invitational at the University Golf Course. The races will begin with the men at 9:30 a.m. followed by the women at 10:10 a.m.

It's the first full distance run of the year for the men. They competed in a two-team meet in Bozeman two weeks ago, running 5K in the opener. In Missoula, the men will run the championship 8k distance on the same course that will host some of the best runners in the world in just over a month's time. The women will run the championship 5K distance.

"We're excited to host," head coach Doug Fraley said of the weekend. "This was a real small meet last year and this year it's going to be significantly larger. We've got some good inter-conference competition coming in to get on the course before the Big Sky Championships."

There will be 14 different schools represented, not all of which will bring both men's and women's teams. The field includes four Big Sky schools, all eager for a preliminary run on the championship course. Montana is joined by Montana State, Eastern Washington, and the Weber State women's team.

The Bobcats were picked second to national powerhouse Northern Arizona in both Big Sky preseason polls. The Wildcat women were picked to finish fourth.

There will also be seven non-D1 Montana schools participating, along with three non-D1 schools from outside of the state. It should lead to some large and competitive fields.

The Grizzlies will have the advantage of running at home, on a course that is familiar to them at the University Golf Course. There should be some natural advantages for Friday that come with hosting the event. But more important than that, it's a chance for Montana to see where they stack up against fellow league teams on the championship course.

"Any time you get to race at a home competition it's a great thing," Fraley said. "We will have home support and won't have any travel. All those things are good, but really getting a feel for the course that is going to be set up just like it will be for the Big Sky Conference meet is a big advantage for our kids and the other Big Sky schools that are coming."

Montana had a good start to the season in Bozeman. The Bobcat men are ranked 26^th in the country and provided stiff competition, but the Grizzlies showed drastic improvement from the same point in the schedule in 2022.

The top seven finishers for the Grizzly men all either improved on their time from last year or ran the Bobcat Twilight meet for the first time. Maxwell Scott and Cooper Morris, who were both injured for the event in 2022, finished 1-2 for Montana. Lane Cole, Rogelio Mares and Colin Shaules all improved upon their 2022 times, while freshmen Carson Steckelberg (4^th UM/11^th overall) and Truman Thompson (6^th UM/16^th overall) ran good first times.

The runners are in good shape, but Fraley said the key for this weekend will be to see how they respond to the added distance.

"We're looking forward to seeing what our men are going to be able to do over a real distance," Fraley said. "We bump up to 8K which is their race distance through the conference championships, so we're very interested to see how the order will shake out when we make the move from 5K.

The women produced similar results in Bozeman with six of the top seven finishers either newcomers or runners who improved on their 2022 time. Jade (1^st UM, 18:58.6) and Jaylyn (2^nd, 19:01.3) Hallgrimson led the way with good times, while Iris McKean (3^rd, 19:15.6) and Kayla Ingraham (4^th, 19:22.3) made big improvements as well.

The top four has performed well, and were expected to this year as a Big 10 transfer and three high-level returners. Fraley said that as they move through the season it will be watching the depth and seeing who can step up from that group that will be a main focus.

"On the women's side, our top four are pretty solidified as far as their positions on the squad, but we're looking forward to seeing who in that 5, 6, 7, area is going to show up and kind of make their claim to the top seven roster, so to speak," Fraley said.

In general, Montana is in much better shape up-and-down the roster than they were at this time last year. The men finished in eighth place in the Big Sky Championships last year and the women in ninth. The goal for the year has been to improve upon those results.

The early training results certainly lean toward that being a good possibility for Montana's runners.

"The Bozeman meet was a big contrast from what it was a year ago," Fraley said. "The kids were not in nearly as good shape last year as they came into camp this year, and the results of that meet showed a marked improvement from 2022 to 2023. It's what we were expecting after the early stages of training and seeing the fitness levels that everyone came back at."

In addition to strong veterans and returners, Montana boasts four freshmen on both squads. Steckelberg and Thompson were joined in the top seven on the men's side by Helena's Henry Ballinger. Layne Lathrop was the fifth Grizzly woman to cross the finish line in Bozeman with a time of 19:58.8.

There will be more chances for the newcomers to run, and they get their first taste of running at home this week.

"We feel good about the freshman class that we have, and a few of those kids shined a little bit in Bozeman," Fraley said. "You want your newcomers to be able to come in and not only represent themselves well, but to challenge for a top five or top seven position on the roster. We had some of that from a couple of the freshman, so that's a good sign."

This is race number two out of four in the regular season, but perhaps the most important of them all. It's also one of two chances for Montana fans, and running fans in general, to come out and see some high-caliber athletes.

Montana is also hosting soccer on Thursday afternoon and football on Saturday night, making it an action-packed weekend in Missoula. It will be just a teaser to what is to come on Oct. 27, when the top-ranked team in the country will run on the same course, but it's a great opportunity for fans to come out and support the Griz.

"This is a great opportunity to come see some really high-quality distance running in Missoula," Fraley said. "It's part of a great sports week for us at home. It's a good opportunity for fans that don't necessarily follow cross country to be able to come out to the golf course for 90 minutes on Friday morning and see what the sport is all about. It'd be great to see them come out and watch how hard these athletes work over the course of a cross country race."

Griz Cross Country to host Montana Invitational on Friday

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Players Mentioned

Henry Ballinger

Lane Cole

Kayla Ingraham

Layne Lathrop

Rogelio Mares

Iris McKean

Cooper Morris

Maxwell Scott

Colin Shaules

Carson Steckelberg

Truman Thompson

University of Montana Athletics