Montana State XC dazzles at pre-national view

Is your fridge running? If it’s not that’s okay — the Montana State cross country team is. The season started with a great run for both the men’s and women’s cross country teams. At the MSU Cross Country Classic, the men placed second out of four, and the women finished in third out of five teams. Both teams also competed against the Griz at the Montana Invitational, with the women finishing in first place. After the Montana Invitational, according to the Montana State Athletics page, Montana State's cross country program director, Lyle Weese commented "I'm excited about our teams having a chance to go up against a field at this level.”

Weese spoke before the Florida State Invitational/Pre-National Invitational on Friday, Oct. 15. Having the cross country teams participate in some high level competition seems to spark the excitement about more potential wins to come. At the FSU Invitational/Pre-National Invitational, the men’s team placed 12th overall out of the 40 teams, and the women took 28th. Even if this was not the outcome the team had expected, they took it in stride.

Last year the Exponenthad the opportunity to speak to junior Duncan Hamilton and reported on sophomore Camila Noe. This past weekend at the FSU Invitational, both paced their respective teams. Noe placed 14th overall while Hamilton finished 12th. Last season, Hamilton was the fastest finishing Bobcat at the Big Sky Cross Country Championship in over 18 years. At the end of the month, Hamilton will likely have the chance to repeat this exciting event and perhaps return to the NCAA Championships.

Both teams have three events to go before finishing up the season. They’ll compete at the Big Sky Conference Championships on Friday, Oct. 29, in Oregon, the NCAA Mountain Region Championships on Friday, Nov. 12, in Utah, and on Saturday, Nov. 20, at the NCAA Championships in Tallahassee, Florida. As the team prepares for its next event, community members and students can give runners extra motivation by demonstrating excitement for cross country success. Now I was really looking forward to adding a running pun at the end of this article, but it somehow ran away from me. Either way, good luck to our men’s and women’s cross country teams and may the course be with you.