Cross country ramps up for nationals

When the first snow hits the ground, it’s time for the MSU Cross Country teams to punch their tickets to the national meet. After a whole summer of offseason work and a perfect fall for running, both the men and women are looking forward to upping their competition in the coming meets.

The team is led by 5th year head coach of both track and field and XC, Lyle Weese. With his expertise the current results were only a matter of time.  “We have had a lot of consistent, solid performances which really sets us up well as we head into the championship season with conferences, regionals and the national meet,” said head coach Lyle Weese. 

Both teams are very strong and are looking to make some noise at the Big Sky Conference meet, the regional meet and hopefully nationals. As of Tuesday Oct. 18 the men were ranked 21st in the country while the women were ranked 12th in the mountain region. 

“That meet [Big Sky Conference] will be kind of interesting because the two teams that are going to be competitive are going to be us and NAU,” said Duncan Hamilton. “Our team is treating it as a dual meet and trying to take down Northern Arizona which is one of the kings of XC in the NCAA.”

The women's team is led by 5th year runner, Camila Noe who transferred to MSU during her first semester of freshman year and hasn’t looked back.

“I transferred from the University of Portland during my first semester,” Noe said. “My junior year of high school I won my first XC race in a bigger setting down in Washington and I started getting letters and emails from coaches to come visit.”

On the men’s side, Duncan Hamilton leads the way for a group that could really stand out at the next couple of meets with a goal of sending the team to nationals. Duncan is in his 5th year running at MSU, but has plans to continue after he graduates. Last year he placed second at the national track and field meet in Eugene, Oregon for the 3000 meter steeplechase. After coming in second by only 0.18 seconds he plans to go back and claim the number one spot.

“His greatest attribute is that if things don’t go well, he doesn’t dwell on it,” Weese said. “Out of all collegians that have run in the history of the NCAA [3000 meter steeplechase] he is the third fastest to this date and the fastest American to ever compete in the event. That was just an incredible, transcendent performance.” 

Duncan also placed fourth at the 2022 USATF championships with a time of 8:20.23 which was just a second outside of the top three. He wants to get back to that meet, but right now the focus for him, Camila, Lyle and the rest of the talented MSU squad is the Big Sky meet which takes place on Oct. 28 in Cheney, Washington.  

“We definitely have a good portion [of meets] coming up with conference, regionals and nationals if regionals go well,” Noe said. “I’m super excited and it should be some good competition. The girls team is looking really good right now and NAU are good on both the men and women sides.”

With such a massive competitor in Northern Arizona University, the upcoming conference meet is a great test for how the team will fare at regionals in a couple weeks and hopefully nationals as well. 

“We’re going up against some really fast guys,” Hamilton said. “Our goals are to get an individual title, whether that’s me or any of my teammates, that would be amazing and a team title as well if we can.”

As the regular season comes to an end the teams are finding their stride and it couldn’t come at a better time. Be sure to keep an eye out for them as they push in the Big Sky Championship meet and the national meet.