Griz back from break with Frank Knott Classic

The Griz cross country team resumes racing this weekend at the Frank Knott Classic hosted by Whitworth University. The races, held at The Course in Spokane Valley, will be a 6K for the women and an 8K for the men beginning at 11:00 a.m (MT).

The fourth meet of the regular season for the Griz will also serve as the penultimate competition as they have a week off before closing the regular season at the LC State Invite on Oct. 17.

As the calendar turns to October and the Big Sky Championships continue to creep closer, the Grizzlies are fresh and ready to run against some top-level competition in Spokane.

"It's another great opportunity for an increased level of competition," head coach Doug Fraley said. "It's great after having a home meet and then a week off, we're going to get some people back healthy and some people who were under the weather the last couple of weeks so we're looking to be at full strength."

The meet will feature fellow Big Sky Conference members Eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana State as well as the Pac-12's Gonzaga.

The Grizzlies impressed last time out at the Montana Invite during the only home meet of the season. The men finished second behind Montana State but ahead of three other Big Sky teams.

Luke Mest led Montana for the third straight event, finishing third overall with a time of 24:22.9 on the difficult track at the UM Golf Course. Lane Krautschun returned and finished second on UM's roster for the second time this season.

As the Grizzlies continue to get to full strength, the men should be competing well in a loaded Big Sky Conference. The men were ranked 14^th in the Mountain Region in the latest rankings right behind Texas Tech and ahead of New Mexico State.

Still not yet at full strength, the Grizzlies are also ranked 132^nd nationally in the USTFCCCA's Cross Country Rating Index that scores teams based on the top five runners.

Depth has been on display all year for the Grizzly men. Outside of Mest, Albert Turner is the only runner to finish in the top five for Montana in all three meets. There have been five other runners to place inside the top five for the Grizzlies over the first three races.

For Fraley, he's hoping that Mest continues to run strong at the front while some other athletes close the time gap behind him.

"Luke has been leading us in a tremendous way and now the pieces behind him need to fall together," Fraley said. "We need to start to solidify that top five and get some consistency out of some of the guys and gals to really bring the gap between the number one time and the number five time closer."

The women have also been led by Olivia Coll in both races that she has competed in. Freshman Rosie Conway, who was the second Grizzly across the finish line in her collegiate debut, led Montana at the home meet two weeks ago.

Heidi Olson has finished in the top three of every meet for Montana while Malia Bradford has been third twice and fourth once.

The women will also be looking to close the gap between the top time and the fifth time. In Missoula, there were nearly two minutes from the first finisher to the fifth finisher for the Grizzly women.

As the regular season dwindles down, there are fewer opportunities for the athletes to prove that they belong on the trip to the Conference Championship in Flagstaff on Oct. 30.

"The race is on for both of our teams to position themselves to make the conference roster going to Flagstaff," Fraley said. "There is a lot on the line the next two meets for who will travel and that should be a great level of competition, especially with our men's crew."

The Grizzlies will have an opportunity to run some fast times against good competition this weekend. They finish the regular season Oon Oct. 17 at the LC State Invite in Lewiston, typically one of the faster meets of the season. Last year, 17 Grizzlies recorded personal best times at the event.

The next three weeks should prime the Grizzlies for a huge meet at the end of the month at elevation in Flagstaff.

"The next two regular season meets we are really putting everything together to be ready for when we go to Flagstaff at the end of October," Fraley said.

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Players Mentioned

Malia Bradford

Olivia Coll

Rosie Conway

Lane Krautschun

Luke Mest

Heidi Olson

Albert Turner

University of Montana Athletics