Griz cross country back in action at Whitman Open

Whitman Open (Walla Walla, Wash.)
Saturday, Oct. 4 / 12:00 PM / Live Results

The Montana cross country program is back from a week off and will return to competition Saturday morning at the Whitman Open at the Veterans Memorial Golf Course in Walla Walla, Wash.

The men will run the championship 8K distance while the women will compete at the 6K distance for the second time this season.

It's the first road event for the program in nearly a month after last racing on their home course in late September. The team now gears up for the final stretch of the regular season with two races in the next two weeks before the Big Sky Championships on Nov. 1.

"They're excited with a two-meet stretch coming up after a two-week break," head coach Doug Fraley said. "The team had a good chance to reset after the home meet and get some good training in and they feel like they are ready to go for this one and next week in Lewiston."

The Grizzlies are three races into the season and on the men's side they have had a different top finisher three different times. Luke Mest led the Grizzlies in race number one, Zachary Giesch in the second, and Carson Steckelberg led them across the line at home.

Last season, Steckelberg became the first men's Grizzly in a decade to place inside the top 20. This year, Giesch was named the Big Sky Athlete of the Week, the first Grizzly to claim the honor in over 20 years.

Mest has been right there with them through all three meets as the top three finishers has remained unchanged, but the order has switched around. The strength at the top of the lineup is new for Fraley and company, but very welcome.

"That's been a big upgrade for us," Fraley said. "For as well as Carson finished last year at the championships, to have two more guys basically at the same level week in and week out, that's how you do better as a team. You combine those three with the group behind them, and it really bolsters our chances to do well at the Big Sky Championships."

While the order of the top three has changed from race to race, the group behind them has also seen plenty of jostling between different runners. Freshman Elliot Stimpson has finished 4^th in two races, but was 6^th in the other. Truman Thompson has been in the top five twice.

Albert Turner and Henry Sund each have a top five finish as well. The Grizzlies could have any number of runners score for the team at the Big Sky Championships in November, which helps alleviate any bad days or injury luck that the team might encounter.

"It's great to feel like you have seven or eight guys on the roster that can contribute in that top five at any time. It gives us a lot of depth," Fraley said. "In years past, we've really had to depend on the four or five guys to come through on the day. We feel like this year we have way better depth and that if someone has an off day, somebody else will come in and pick up the slack."

The youth of the roster also means that plenty of the runners could get better the more they compete at the 8K distance. They have competed in two races at the distance so far this season with two more to go before the conference meet.

The young guys have adjusted well to the increased distance and continue to get in better shape day after day.

"It's been great the way that Coach Eckmann has had the young guys running the 8Ks just to get acclimated to that distance," Fraley said. "They've been running together and working together in those races. The more experience they get, the more comfortable they will feel at that difference to hopefully start closing the time gap between the top guys and those fourth and fifth positions. That will be a real key for us as we move toward the conference meet."

The women's side has seen less commotion in the finish order with 5^th year senior Kayla Ingraham leading the team across the line at every race. Ingraham has two top 10 overall finishes this year, including two weeks ago at home.

Sophomore Heidi Olson has finished in second every race, and Shay Pederson has been the third Grizzly across the line in both races that she competed in.

The consistency at the top has been good, but it was the performance of the rest of the group that inspired Fraley at the Montana Invite. There was a minute difference between the top time and the 5^th best time at the first meet. In the second meet, at the longer 6K distance, the gap was almost 90 seconds.

In Missoula, Olivia Coll and Libby Hartz finished in 19:42.9 and 19:43.8 to finish 4^th and 5^th for the Grizzlies. They were just 20 seconds behind Ingraham, giving Montana a good grouping. Fraley hopes to see more of that as the year continues.

"Just continue to improve," Fraley said of what he's looking for this week. "Kayla has been our leader every race, but the twos through fives have been moving the accordion forward where that time gap is getting less and less. That's a big key for the women's team, tightening up that distance in the top five and of course having Kayla run well and continue to lead us."

The Grizzlies wrap up the regular season on Saturday, Oct. 11 at the LC State Invitational in Lewiston, Idaho. They will compete in Bozeman on Nov. 1 at the Big Sky Championship.

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Players Mentioned

Olivia Coll

Zachary Giesch

Libby Hartz

Kayla Ingraham

Luke Mest

Heidi Olson

Shay Pederson

Carson Steckelberg

Elliot Stimpson

Henry Sund

Truman Thompson

Albert Turner

University of Montana Athletics