Cross country brings youthful experience into 2025 season

Friday, August 29

Bozeman, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

MSU Bobcat Twilight

Photo by: Ella Palulis/University of Montana

Cross country brings youthful experience into 2025 season

8/28/2025 10:38:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

By: Montana Sports Information

MSU BOBCAT TWILIGHT
Friday, August 29 / 7:00 p.m. (Men) / 7:25 p.m. (Women) / LIVE RESULTS

When the Montana cross country teams hit the course on Friday night in Bozeman, they will do so with every runner that competed at last year's Big Sky Championship still on the roster.

The Grizzlies bring back 13 runners from last year's roster on the women's side and 11 on the men's side. Those numbers include all 14 of the Grizzlies that ran at last year's Big Sky Championships.

Throw in some talented freshmen and newcomers, and Montana should have the right ingredients to improve upon last year's finishes.

"We're excited because we have a good mix of veteran leadership on both sides and a lot of good young runners," head coach Doug Fraley said. "Between the athletes that were freshmen last year that showed promise during cross season and the incoming freshmen, especially on the men's side, we feel like we have a lot of youngsters who are talented. It will be interesting to see how they develop this season."

Montana was very young last year and had to deal with the injury bug on top of that. The men could only field six healthy runners for the conference race, and they still finished in 7^th place. The women finished in 10^th in 2024.

If they can stay healthy this year, the Grizzlies should be poised to move up from last year's finish. The men were picked to finish in 7^th in the Big Sky Preseason Coaches' Poll and the women were slotted in at 9^th.

"Our first goal is to improve on our finishes from last year at the Big Sky Cross Country Championships," Fraley said. "We feel like we have the pieces to definitely do that. We've got good athletes that are seniors, good athletes that are freshmen, and everything in between.

The highlight of last year's conference championship was the performance of Carson Steckelberg. As a sophomore, Steckelberg finished in 17^th place with a time of 24:31.7 in the 8K race in Pocatello, Idaho.

His finish was the best by a Grizzly male runner since Lynn Reynolds finished 4^th overall in 2011.

Steckelberg dealt with injuries during the track and field season, but is back from the summer healthy and poised for another strong year as a junior.

"The guy that we're going to lean on the most is Carson having finished in the top 20 in the Big Sky meet last year," Fraley said. "He's our big returner, he's a great cross runner, and he's come back into camp in tremendous shape after being a little dinged up last spring."

Luke Mest and Lane Krautschun were the next two finishers for Montana. The pair are just sophomores in 2025 and could contribute in a scoring position again this year. Zachary Giesch, Morgan Amano, and Colin Shaules rounded out Montana's Big Sky lineup in 2024.

Fraley will hope that veteran runners Henry Ballinger, Lane Cole, Keagen Crosby, and Truman Thompson can stay healthy in 2025. The Grizzlies also brought in four true freshmen this year; Samuel Jagodzinski, Elliot Stimpson, Henry Sund, and Albert Turner.

The women also return all eight of their Big Sky Championship squad last year. Abigail Case is the top returner, coming off a 52^nd place finish in 2024. Shay Pederson, Abigail Kotran, Heidi Olson, and Iris McKean rounded out the top five for the Grizzlies and could all move up the standings this year.

There is a group of eight sophomores on the women's side that have all showed promise, and the young athletes could help raise the bar for the rest of Montana's roster. Kotran and Olson lead the way, but are joined by sophomores Olivia Coll, Libby Hartz, Sofia Hinderman, and Lucy Thompson.

"The young group of freshmen and sophomore runners on the roster have really been showing a lot of promise in training," Fraley said. "A lot of the young ladies that were freshmen last year who showed promise have come back in good shape and are training great right now."

There is always a certain amount of unpredictability with cross country, particularly with a roster this young. The early signs have been good through the first weeks of training, but Fraley is excited to get into the real races and see how things shake out.

"Every time you go into a cross country season you're going to have surprises with athletes that really put a lot of work in during the offseason that potentially jump into a top five scoring position on the team," Fraley said. "It's always fun to watch that unfold over the course of the next couple of months."

Montana will compete in five events in the regular season over the next two months. They have trips to Washington State, Whitman, and Lewis-Clark State planned. The Griz will also host the Montana Invite on September 19.

They open and close the season in the same place, Bozeman. The Big Sky Championships will be hosted by Montana State on November 1, but they will take place at a different course than what Montana will run on Friday night.

The Grizzlies will run on an open, flat track that consists of five 1K loops. It's the perfect start to the year to get a time and see exactly where they stand after summer training and fall workouts.

"The reports of summer training and the fitness levels that they showed up for camp two weeks ago have been very good," Fraley said. "We're excited to get out to Bozeman this week and do a little 5K time trial to really see where we are at. It's a great meet to get a time on everyone who will run and evaluate where they're at at this point in the young year."