Grizzly men have best regional finish since 2009

Friday, November 14

Salt Lake City, Utah

TBD

Montana

NCAA Mountain Regional

Photo by: Jackson Wagner

11/14/2025 2:29:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

Results

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's cross country team put a bow on a tremendous 2025 season on Friday in Salt Lake City. The Grizzlies finished 15^th in the NCAA Mountain Regional, the best team finish by the program in the last 16 years.

The field included four of the top 10 teams in the country racing at the 10k distance. New Mexico won the regional meet, followed by BYU, and Big Sky Champion Northern Arizona in third.

Carson Steckelberg and Luke Mest crossed the line within a second of each other to lead the Grizzlies with 62^nd and 63^rd place finishes. Steckelberg ran a time of 32:18.30 while Mest crossed just behind his teammate in 32:18.40.

Steckelberg's finish is the best for Montana since 2017.

"I'm pretty pleased with how the boys did today," head coach Doug Fraley said. "It's the best regional finish we've had in quite a few years at UM and obviously Carson and Luke ran really well against top level competition."

Zachary Giesch was the next Grizzly across the line in 89^th place overall with a time of 33:28.40.

A trio of young Grizzlies finished just outside of the top 100. Sophomore Lane Krautschun finished 101^st, freshman Elliot Stimpson 102^nd, and freshman Henry Sund 105^th.

The six Grizzlies that finished on Friday in Salt Lake include two juniors, two sophomores, and two freshmen. Fraley will return all six next season for a program with plenty of potential.

"The best part of this is that we have everybody coming back with some good additions," head coach Doug Fraley said. "It's a great experience for a real young crew. It's the first regional championship for several of the guys, first 10k race for several of the guys, so I thought it was a great learning experience."

It's the best team finish for a Montana team since the 2009 squad came in 12^th at the Mountain Regional. Lynn Reynolds led the team with a 40^th place finish that year.

The Grizzlies had the best conference finish in 14 years and best regional finish in 16 years. Steckelberg now has back-to-back top 20 finishes, the first Grizzly to do since Reynolds in 2010-11, and was joined at the top of Montana's results this year by Mest and Giesch.

It has Fraley excited for the future and proud of the work that the team has put in over the previous months to get to this point.

"I think looking back on the cross season it's been a great period of growth for our men's cross team," Fraley said. "We did better at the Big Sky Conference meet than we have since 2011 and now better at the Mountain Region meet since 2009, so I think it was a great season and I'm looking forward to the season with this group."

MONTANA RESULTS
1. Carson Steckelberg (32:18.30, 62^nd)
2. Luke Mest (32:18.40, 63^rd)
3. Zachary Giesch (33:28.40, 89^th)
4. Lane Krautschun (34:10.40, 101^st)
5. Elliot Stimpson (34:18.10, 102^nd)
6. Henry Sund (34:35.30, 105^th)

TEAM RESULTS
1. New Mexico (37)
2. BYU (67)
3. Northern Arizona (82)
4. Colorado (114)
5. Air Force (127)
6. Utah State (186)
7. Weber State (215)
8. Utah Valley (243)
9. Texas Tech (252)
10. Wyoming (291)
11. Montana State (303)
12. Colorado State (356)
13. Idaho State (386)
14. Southern Utah (408)
15. Montana (417)
16. New Mexico State (468)
17. UTEP (489)
18. Nevada (511)