Montana finishes regular season at LC State Invitational

The Montana cross country teams will conclude the regular season on Saturday afternoon at the LC State Invite in Lewiston, Idaho. The women's meet begins at 10:45 a.m. and will be followed by the men at 11:45 a.m.

The women will run a 5K and the men an 8K on a course that historically has been very fast. The Grizzlies will run against fellow Big Sky opponents as well as some of the top teams at the NAIA level.

There are three Grizzly men that have recorded their best times on the course, and both of Montana's returners on the women's side have 5K PRs on the course. The familiarity with the course, and the success that Montana had on it last year, has head coach Doug Fraley's team excited for Saturday.

"The kids are really excited to go down there to Lewiston this week because the course is known for being real fast. A lot of the kids that are returners ran down there last year and it's where they had their fastest race," Fraley said. "It's a very nice, dedicated cross country course that's very legit and very fast. Everybody is looking forward to having a chance to run a good time down there."

It's been a successful season for Montana through the first four races, particularly in the previous two outings. The Griz have won the previous two team competitions on both the men's and women's sides, and Abigail Case has won two straight individual titles.

Case is the first Grizzly to win multiple races in the same season since Makena Morley in 2015.

The Grizzlies also haven't won multiple races in the same season as a team since 2019. The women scored 21 points at the UM Invitational and 28 points in the Yellowjacket/Battlin' Bears Open.

The men, meanwhile, scored 32 points and 42 points in the previous two races for their wins. The Grizzly men have had five top 10 individual finishes, led by two apiece from Henry Ballinger and Carson Steckelberg.

Ballinger has led Montana in three races this year with Steckelberg finishing right behind him, but the duo flipped the results in the last meet with Steckelberg crossing the line first in a time of 25:22.4 in the 8K race.

Freshman Lane Krautschun also has a top 10 finish this year, coming in at 10^th during the UM Invitational.

The women have combined for 11 top 10 finishes over the previous two races behind the pair of wins from Case. Abigail Kotran finished 3^rd at the UM Invitational and freshman Heidi Olson finished 5^th at the Yellowjacket/Battlin' Bears Open.

Iris McKean and Shay Pederson have finished in the top 10 in back-to-back races, while freshmen Sofia Hinderman and Olivia Coll each have one top 10 finish. The competition will be stiffer this weekend, but the confidence the Griz runners have built the previous two weeks will hopefully translate to fast times.

"I think the last two meets we've had have been good for allowing a young team to kind of find their stride a little bit and do well in the team competition and on the individual side," Fraley said. "Hopefully they carry that momentum into racing against better people this week, and if they do they should be able to latch on to faster moving groups and put up some good times."

Idaho, Idaho State, and Eastern Washington will all be running, giving Montana an early chance to see where they stack up before heading to the Big Sky Championships in two weeks.

"It's really good competition. We'll be able to see some of the good teams in the Big Sky, Gonzaga is always sending a crew, so the competition will be top-notch and it'll be a good test for our teams to see where they measure up," Fraley said.

It's the final race of the season for Montana. The Griz will then have a week off before heading to Pocatello for the Big Sky Conference Championship on Nov. 1.

"Any time that you get ready for a championship, the last competition before that you are starting to come off heavy volume of training and you should start to feel better," Fraley said. "We're looking forward to our athletes using that little bit of extra bounce in their step to be able to go out a little faster, maintain a faster pace, and ultimately run a good time."

MONTANA MEN'S ENTRIES
Morgan Amano
Henry Ballinger
Keagen Crosby
Zachary Giesch
Luke Mest
Colin Shaules
Carson Steckelberg
Truman Thompson

MONTANA WOMEN'S ENTRIES
Abigail Case
Olivia Coll
Libby Hartz
Sofia Hinderman
Abigail Kotran
Iris McKean
Heidi Olson
Shay Pederson
Lucy Thompson
Ashtyn Wagner

Montana finishes regular season at LC State Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Morgan Amano

Henry Ballinger

Abigail Case

Olivia Coll

Keagen Crosby

Zachary Giesch

Libby Hartz

Sofia Hinderman

Abigail Kotran

Lane Krautschun

Iris McKean

Luke Mest

Heidi Olson

Shay Pederson

Colin Shaules

Carson Steckelberg

Lucy Thompson

Truman Thompson

Ashtyn Wagner

University of Montana Athletics