Griz cross country travels to Flagstaff for Big Sky Championships

Friday, October 30

Flagstaff, Ariz.

11:00 AM (MT)

Montana

Big Sky Conference Championship

Photo by: Lewis-Clark State

10/27/2026 2:15:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Live Results

By: Montana Sports Information

2026 Big Sky Championships
Friday, Oct. 30 / Flagstaff, Ariz.
Men's 8K – 11 a.m. (MT) / Women's 5K – 12:00 p.m. (MT)
Live Results

The Montana cross country teams will head to the elevation of Flagstaff, Ariz. to compete in the 2026 Big Sky Cross Country Championships this Friday. The meet begins with the men's 8K at 11:00 a.m. (MT) before the women hit the course at Buffalo Park at noon.

It has been an impressive season for the Montana men and their leader Luke Mest. Mest and the Grizzlies will look to build on strong results this year to continue to move up the ladder in the league.

"It's a championship meet which is super exciting for the men and the women on our team and for our staff," head coach Doug Fraley said. "Then you add in the fact that it's up in Flagstaff at 7,000 feet, which doesn't change championship running but certainly changes the dynamics of the difficulty in an already very difficult sport. It's going to be very interesting to see how teams respond up there and our athletes are very excited about the challenge."

The Grizzly men finished 5^th at last year's Big Sky Championship in Bozeman, the best result for the team since 2011. There are new faces in the league with Utah Tech and Southern Utah entering this year and Sacramento State leaving.

It makes what was already a great cross country conference even better. Sacramento State finished last on the men's side and in the bottom half for the women last year. The Hornets are replaced by two teams that rank inside the top six in the league on both the men's and women's side.

"I think you have to look at the Big Sky Conference, which has always been very tough in cross country, and you have to think it's even stronger this year with the offseason movement," Fraley said. "It is definitely a stronger conference than it has been in the past."

The task is made even more difficult considering the location of this year's championship races. Buffalo Park sits at over 7,000-feet of elevation, providing a unique challenge for the runners on Friday.
Northern Arizona, the 2026 hosts, have long been a cross country power because of their ability to train at the extreme elevation, but now the rest of the league will head up to embrace the challenge.

Last year, the Grizzlies finished in 5^th on the men's side led by Carson Steckelberg's 17^th place finish. Steckelberg has been inside the top 20 in back-to-back years. He was the leader of a young group on the rise that has even more experience in 2026.

Mest has emerged as a force in the conference this year, winning the last meet of the regular season at the LC State Invite. It was the first time since 2013 that a Grizzly men's runner won an individual title and earned Mest co-Athlete of the Week honors in the Big Sky.

The junior from Boulder, Mont. is currently ranked 11^th in the Big Sky Conference in the Cross Country Rating Index (XCRI). Northern Arizona has the top six in the conference in the XCRI and Mest ranks 3^rd among the other 10 schools in the league with only Montana State's Sam Ells and Pierre Carlier ahead of him.

Mest has led Montana at all five meets this season and has finished inside the top five overall at every race.

"It's always a big deal for a team when they have a low runner, and the way Luke has been running throughout the regular season, he has finished really, really well in every single race," Fraley said. "To think about having a chance to have a guy in that lead group of athletes in the Big Sky Conference is very exciting and we're eager to see how it plays out for Luke."

Lane Krautschun has run at four meets this year and was the second Grizzly across the finish line in all four. The junior from Spearfish, S.D. recently ran a career best 8K time of 24:33 at the LC State Invite, where he finished 5^th overall, and enters the Big Sky Championship in good form.

The men have been deep behind those top two with four additional runners finishing in the top three on the team at some point in the season. Steckelberg has the Big Sky Championship resume and finished 3^rd for Montana at the home meet in September.

Zachary Giesch, another junior that has been towards the top of Montana's roster in all three of his years, has finished third twice for the Grizzlies this year. Sophomore Albert Turner was the second Grizzly across the line at the WSU Cougar Classic with a PR time of 24:24.

Last time out, it was Henry Sund that finished in third position for the Grizzlies with a time of 24:46 in Lewiston, Idaho.

They could all factor into the scoring for Montana on Friday morning, as could several other Grizzlies on a deep roster. Keagen Crosby, Truman Thompson, and Henry Ballinger have all finished in the top six at some point this year for the Grizzlies as well.

"Our guys were fifth place last year, which was a great finish for us, and I know they want more than than," Fraley said. "It's a very motivated group of men that really want to go out and improve on what they did last year. They have put themselves in a position where they're going to have a chance to do that if they race well up at 7,000 feet."

On the women's side, the Griz have dealt with some injuries as runners have gone in and out of the lineup this year. They got a season best performance from senior Malia Bradford the last time out at the LC State Invite as she led Montana with a 16^th place finish.

Bradford has been improving all year, improving one spot at every meet since finishing 4^th for Montana at the WSU Cougar Classic. She finished 3^rd for the Grizzlies at last year's Big Sky Championship.

Olivia Coll had led Montana across the line in her first three appearances of the season and she finished just eight seconds behind Bradford in Lewiston. Both Coll and Bradford ran career best times at the LC State Invite.

Heidi Olson was the top finisher for Montana at last year's Big Sky Championship, placing 50^th in a time of 18:13.7. She has been in the top four for Montana at every meet this season.

"Our women's team has some core people that have run in the conference championships the last couple of years," Fraley said. "We also have some newcomers that have done well and been in our top five, so I think this is a great opportunity for our ladies to move forward and continue to improve in the Big Sky Conference like they did a year ago."

Freshman Rosie Conway led the Grizzlies at the Montana Invite in Missoula back in September and Libby Hartz has been in the top five for the Griz at four of the five meets. Several runners have made just one appearance for the Griz this year.

The Grizzly women finished 9^th at the conference meet last season. The Grizzlies have experience running at altitude and have been doing what they can in the two weeks leading up to the championship to better prepare their bodies for the thin air in Flagstaff.

"The great thing about living in Missoula is that you can be at a pretty high altitude without going very far from campus," Fraley said. "Our group has been doing some of their longer runs and things like that up in the hills at a little higher altitude to prepare for it. It's been a benefit for us as we have prepared throughout the fall."

The races will not be streamed live, but results can be found online through Wingfoot Finish.