Grizzlies start cross country season strong in Bozeman

Friday, August 29

Bozeman, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

MSU Bobcat Twilight

Photo by: Montana State Athletics

Grizzlies start cross country season strong in Bozeman

8/29/2025 8:49:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Results

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana cross country team had high hopes for the 2025 season after returning nearly the entire roster from last year. On Friday night's season opener at dusk in Bozeman, the Grizzlies showed why they are excited for the season with a good overall team performance.

The men and women both finished in second place to Montana State with plenty of encouraging starting times for the year. The men had a pair of top 10 finishers while the women were led by senior Kayla Ingraham, who had the best finish of the day for a Grizzly in 6^th.

It's a comeback story for Ingraham. The graduate runner missed all of last season with a fractured femur. She graduated, and it appeared that her collegiate running career had come to an end. Few expected her to even be on the team, let alone be leading the Grizzlies across the finish line.

"That was an unbelievable performance from Kayla," head coach Doug Fraley said. "She's been training really hard all summer and really showed out today."

She ran a time of 18:45.0 to finish in 6^th place overall, which is six spots higher than the best Grizzly from a year ago.

"I'm really proud of her performance after the year she had last year and just her perseverance to, one, get back into running, two, to decide she still wanted to run at the collegiate level and then, three, to lead us the way she did today with a tremendous run against some really good Montana State women," Fraley said.

The times were much quicker than what Montana put up at the same meet, on the same course, at the same time of year in 2024. The top finisher on the men's side last season was in 15^th with a time of 15:24 last year.

This time around sophomore Luke Mest cracked the top 10, coming in 7^th overall behind a group of MSU runners with a time of 15:12.7. Carson Steckelberg was right behind him at 15:13.1. The time was a 12-second improvement from Steckelberg from last season. Mest and Steckelberg both ran collegiate best 5K times.

"Comparing times from this meet last year on the same course we were significantly faster in some areas led by Luke Mest and Carson Steckelberg who had outstanding finishes in a race that had really good front-end competition," Fraley said. "I thought those guys really handled it well and performed for the opening meet of the season."

Juniors Zachary Giesch finished in 13^th and Truman Thompson finished in 18^th overall, both running under 16 minutes.

Fraley has been excited about the young runners on the roster since they reported for camp and a trio of freshmen proved why with impressive times in their collegiate debuts. Elliot Stimpson had the top time of the newcomers at 15:52.4, which was good for 16^th place.

Albert Turner placed 21^st with a time of 15:57.4 and Henry Sund was close behind at 16:04.9.

"It's always good to see the freshmen in live action for the first time," Fraley said. "Our youngsters look good, they competed well, and I think they are the type of group that is just going to get better as we progress through the season."

On the women's side, the Grizzlies have a strong group of sophomores that ran good times to keep their momentum rolling from last year. Heidi Olson finished 13^th with a time of 19:27.1 and Libby Hartz was 15^th with a time of 19:30.2.

Senior Abigail Case was 4^th on Montana with a time of 19:42.2, but followed closely behind by another sophomore in Olivia Coll at 19:43.0. Abigail Kotran rounded out the results for Montana with a 38^th place finish.

"They continued to really show that they are going to be a group that we can build this women's team around in the future. They came out today and built off what they established as freshmen last year so it was great to see them come back in such good shape."

It was a strong overall start for Montana's young group of runners against a competitive field with the regionally ranked Bobcats on their home course. The Grizzlies will now have a week off before competing in Pullman, Wash. at the WSU Cougar Classic on Sept. 12.

"I thought all-in-all for the first meet of the year it was a good showing," Fraley said. "Now we can look forward to building through the rest of the regular season."

Montana Men's Results
1. Luke Mest (15:12.7*, 7^th)
2. Carson Steckelberg (15:13.1*, 9^th)
3. Zachary Giesch (15:40.0, 13^th)
4. Elliot Stimpson (15:42.4, 16^th)
5. Truman Thompson (15:53.9, 18^th)
6. Albert Turner (15:57.4, 21^st)
7. Henry Sund (16:04.9, 23^rd)
8. Lane Cole (16:11.4, 24^th)
9. Colin Shaules (16:15.7, 26^th)
10. Morgan Amano (16:36.2, 33^rd)
11. Sam Jagodzinski (16:53.1, 42^nd)

Montana Women's Results
1. Kayla Ingraham (18:45.0, 6^th)
2. Heidi Olson (19:27.1, 13^th)
3. Libby Hartz (19:30.2, 15^th)
4. Abigail Case (19:42.2, 20^th)
5. Olivia Coll (19:43.0, 22^nd)
6. Abigail Kotran (20:47.2, 38^th)