Griz Cross Country returns home for Montana Invite

Montana Invite
Friday, Sept. 19 / UM Golf Course / 5:45 PM / Live Results

The Montana cross country team will be hosting its lone event of the fall on Friday night when they welcome 10 teams to the UM Golf Course for the running of the Montana Invite. The women's race will begin at 5:45 p.m. with the men's race set for a 6:30 p.m. start time.

It's the third race of the season for the Grizzlies, who bring some momentum back home after a successful weekend in Colfax at the WSU Cougar Classic. The race saw multiple top 10 finishes on the men's side and the first Big Sky Athlete of the Week for the Grizzly men since 2003.

They will now look to build on that progress on their home course in a race that will feature three Big Sky schools and seven other programs from Montana.

"The kids are really excited. It's their one home competition of the year and their friends, teammates, and people of Missoula will be out to cheer them on," head coach Doug Fraley said. "It's a great opportunity for us to continue the momentum that we started building in Washington last week and we're very excited about it."

Zachary Giesch is the reigning Big Sky Athlete of the Week on the men's side after his 9^th place finish at the WSU Cougar Classic. The Grizzlies raced against two teams either in the national poll or receiving votes for it, but Giesch and his teammate Carson Steckelberg were able to crack the top 10 with great runs.

Luke Mest, who was Montana's top finisher on the men's side in the first race of the season, was also very competitive last week with a 17^th place finish to round out the top trio for the Grizzlies.

The women were led for the second straight race by Kayla Ingraham. The senior finished in 18^th place with a 6K time of 22:29.3.

The young Grizzly team now returns to a course that is very familiar to the returners, who have raced on it once every regular season they've been at Missoula and also during the Big Sky Championships in 2023.

But there is also a familiarity for most of the Grizzlies' newcomers. There are nine Montanans on the men's side and five on the women's. Most of them have run the course during the Mountain West Classic, a large high school event that will be held on Sunday following the race.

The high school teams in town should increase the atmosphere of Montana's Friday night event, and the history of the race also provides many of Montana's newcomers with a familiarity with the course.

"We have a lot of athletes that have run on it the last couple of years and we also have a lot of new athletes that ran on it in high school being that we have a lot of Montana kids on our roster," Fraley said. "It's a course that is familiar to a majority of our team and it's a really good opportunity for us to race at our home venue, a course we are familiar with, against a good slate of competition."

Last year, Montana was the only D1 school to compete in the home race in Missoula. This year, they were able to get Big Sky foes Idaho and Idaho State to enter into the fray. The Vandals and Bengals were both picked ahead of Montana in the Preseason Big Sky Polls on both sides.

There is also a lot of very good competition at the NAIA level, including a Carroll College team that is nationally ranked for both men and women in the preseason poll.

"We're very excited to have 10 teams that have entered and Idaho and Idaho State coming to join us this year," Fraley said. "Any time you get a chance to run against conference foes it's great. Part of the regular season process is finding out where you're at compared to other Big Sky schools. This will be a great test for our athletes at home to compete against the type of teams they will be trying to beat at the Big Sky meet."

This official brings Montana to the midway point of the regular season as they will have just two more races. They head to Walla Walla, Wash. on Oct. 4 for the Whitman Open and then close out the regular season on Oct. 18 at the LC State Invite in Lewiston, Idaho.

The Big Sky Championship will be held on Nov. 1 in Bozeman.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Zachary Giesch

Kayla Ingraham

Luke Mest

Carson Steckelberg

University of Montana Athletics