Montana to run at Yellowjacket/Battlin' Bears Open

The Montana cross country team heads east this week to Billings, Mont. for the Yellowjacket/Battlin' Bears Open. The meet is co-hosted by MSU-Billings and Rocky Mountain College at Amend Park.

The event features an 8K race for the men and a 6K race for the women on the flat track. Amend Park will also serve as the site of the Frontier Conference Championship and the NCAA DII West Regionals, meaning plenty of the top teams from out west will make the journey to Billings.

"This is another opportunity for our young team to build," head coach Doug Fraley said. "It's a meet where we have a chance to have some really good success, so I'm looking forward to continuing to build confidence and experience with this young group."

Fraley is expecting the course to be "flat and fast." The race will take place on soccer rec fields in Billings, and Fraley said "it should be an opportunity for our athletes to go out and run good times."

The youth has been the story of the season for Montana, and in the opening weeks they went through some growing pains against very good competition in Bozeman and at the WSU Cougar Classic.

Last time out, the Grizzlies were able to use some of the lessons they learned over the opening weeks and apply it to win the team competition on both the men's and women's side at the UM Invitational.

The Grizzlies won against in-state competition and had several individual highlights that keyed them to victory. The most notable run came from Abigail Case, who won the women's 5K race with a time of 19:12.0.

It's the first individual win for a Montana runner since Annie Hill won the Montana Open in September of 2022. Case led the way, but the Griz had six women finish inside the top 10 in the race.

Henry Ballinger paced the men to a first-place finish in the event as well. He came in 6^th place overall with a time of 25:53.6 in the 8K race. It's the first team win for the Montana men since 2022.

Montana had last week off, giving them two weeks of training to build off the momentum of the impressive home race.

"We had a home meet where we were successful, and that gives us a full two-week training block to get ready for this meet in Billings," Fraley said. "It will be more good in-state competition, and I think there will be some very good out-of-state schools that come as well."

Gallery: (9-20-2024) XC: Montana Invitational (9.20.24)

Abigail Kotran has finished top two for Montana in every race, and did so again with a 3^rd place finish. Iris McKean has also been in Montana's top three in every race, including at the UM Invitational.

Shay Pederson continues to improve as she returns to 100 percent following injury, and in her second race of the year had her best finish. She was fourth on Montana with a time of 19:32.7.

The next four finishers on the women's side were all true freshmen, highlighting the youth of this team. Sofia Hinderman was the top finisher in the group, crossing the line in 5^th for Montana and 7^th overall. It was her best time in a 5K race, and her best UM finish.

Ballinger is now 3-for-3 in leading the Griz men across the finish line, and his fellow sophomore Carson Steckelberg has finished in second for Montana in all three races. Steckelberg was five seconds behind in Missoula and finished 8^th overall.

Freshman Lane Krautschun is putting together an impressive debut season. After finishing 7^th in the first race of the year, he's jumped up to 3^rd on Montana in back-to-back races, finishing just behind Steckelberg and 17 seconds ahead of the next Grizzly.

It's that type of progress that Fraley was hoping for when putting together the schedule. They will have another smaller field this week before closing out the regular season at LC State in a deep, talented field and then heading off to the Big Sky Championships.

"It's really important for a young team like we have to expose them to really good competition, and then be able to expose them to competition where they can have a lot of success," Fraley said. "After this meet, we will go down to the LC Invite which is always top-level competition. It's good to have one more in-state meet where we can work on things and build confidence before going into the meat grinder in the last two weeks of the season."

Montana Men's Entries
Morgan Amano
Henry Ballinger
Keagan Crosby
Zachary Giesch
Lane Krautschun
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

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Morgan Amano

Henry Ballinger

Abigail Case

Olivia Coll

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