Cross country advances to Mountain Region Championships

The Big Sky Conference Cross Country Championships were held in Bozeman last Saturday for the first time since 2013.

“It is always a really special thing to host the conference championships, and it was a great atmosphere for the athletes,” said Lyle Weese, the Dale Kennedy director of track and field and cross country.

The championship meet was held at the Bridger Creek Golf Course. Both the women’s and men’s teams placed third overall in the 5k and 8k races, respectively.

“I feel like both teams went out there and competed really hard and gave it everything they had,” Weese said. “It was a great effort, and that’s really what we focus on is just maximizing the effort from each individual, and that tends to lead to good results.”

For the men’s team, graduate student Owen Smith and senior Sam Ells earned All-Big Sky honors, placing sixth and 10th with times of  24:08.5 and 24:28.0, respectively. Ryan Harrington was named Freshman of the Year — the top-finishing freshman overall at the championships — after placing 15th.

The rest of the team’s points were scored by sophomore Andrew Ringert, who placed 25th with a time of 25:19.3, and junior Harvey Cramb, who ran 25:22.3 for 27th place overall.

“This was my first All-Conference honor, which is awesome,” Smith said. “Very proud and grateful to be able to do that in front of my home community. The important thing was getting in the experience. We had some really bright moments, a couple of All-Conference performances, we got Freshman of the Year from Ryan, so that was really exciting.”

On the women’s team, sophomore Madi Siana finished 11th with a time of 17:08.8 and junior Eva Koos came in 12th at 17:10.5, both narrowly missing the top 10 and All-Big Sky honors. Freshman Claire Rutherford placed 17th with a time of 17:25.2, and junior Annie Kaul posted a 17:29.5 to cross the finish line in 19th. Graduate student Hannah Perrin was MSU’s fifth and final scorer with a time of 17:40.30 in 24th place.

“Going into this meet, we were ranked fourth by a lot,” Siana said. “We didn’t know what was going to happen today with placement, and the fact that we placed third and almost got second by three points — we did a lot better than what we were ranked going into the race. It gives us a little bit more confidence going into regionals.”

During the races, the Bridger Creek Golf Course was lined with community members who came to cheer on the Bobcats.

“There was so much love, I saw so many people from the track team,” Siana said. “People’s parents were cheering, and it was so awesome. I knew this race was going to be really fun just because there was so much love from people watching the race and cheering us on. I was just trying to soak it all in, while giving it my all.”

The teams will head to Salt Lake City on Nov. 14 for the Mountain Region Championships, where they aimto qualify for the NCAA Championships. The top two teams at the meet will automatically qualify for the championships, along with the top four individual finishers not on an advancing team.

Nationals will be held in Columbia, MO, on Nov. 22, according to the MSU athletics website.

To learn more about the Men’s Cross Country team, visit https://msubobcats.com/sports/mens-cross-country.

To learn more about the Women’s Cross Country team, visit https://msubobcats.com/sports/womens-cross-country.