Men's Cross Country | 10/31/2015 4:36:00 PM
Men's Results
Women's Results
POCATELLO, Idaho -- The ISU men's and women's cross country teams finished fifth and sixth behind the performances of
Ty James and
Presli Hutchison at the Big Sky Conference Championships this weekend.
Men's Race ISU claimed a top-five finish while racing against four teams ranked in the Mountain Region rankings.
Southern Utah, Northern Arizona, and Weber State, the top-three Big Sky teams in the Mountain Region rankings, took the first three positions and Eastern Washington finished fourth. However, Idaho State out ran 13th ranked Montana State by 58 positions to claim fifth.
The Bengals stuck together throughout the race and claimed the second-lowest spread of the 12 teams competing with only 46.7 seconds separating
Ty James and
Jacob Campbell. The team ran for a combined 2:14:27.7 race time.
Ty James finished in 15th with a time of 26:25.8 after making a strong push in the final lap of the race. He and
Wyatt Didericksen both claimed top-25 positions and the rest of the ISU runners finished in the top-40.
Head Coach
Nate Houle believes that the men could have finished a spot or two higher if they were given just a little more time. ISU finished on the heels of Weber State and Eastern Washington's packs after quickly gaining on them in its final push to the finish.
The hosting Southern Utah Thunderbirds claimed the Big Sky Conference title after two-time cross country Athlete of the Week, Hayden Hawks, took the individual win. Southern Utah's five qualifying racers all finished in the top-ten leaving them with a final score of 26.
Women's Race The women finished sixth out of the 12 teams competing in Cedar City, Utah on Saturday. Every team that topped Idaho State except for Idaho was a regionally ranked opponent.
With 153 points, they finished just 13 positions behind fifth place Montana State. They beat Montana, who ranked three places higher in the most recent Mountain Region rankings, by seven points.
Both
Presli Hutchison and
Sasha Kent finished in the top-25.
Carly Hansen and
Katie Nicholls both finished in the top-35 and ISU's fifth place finisher
Ashley Sondag placed 53rd.
The Bengals finished the 6K with a combined time of 1:36:35.3 and had a one minute spread between Hutchison's 18:55.4 finish and Sondag's 19:56.0 finish.
Before the race Houle decided to let the team run with no pace limits, but wanted to them to remain close to another ISU runner.
"They were really close to each other, went out smart, all made up a little ground towards the end and I thought they all ran really well," said Houle.
Houle believed that Kent was key in helping them finish above the Grizzlies.
"Sasha made a huge push to the finish," Houle said. "She had a huge last 1K and made up a ton of ground."
The top individual finisher for the women's race was Makena Morley from the University of Montana with a 17:45.9, ten seconds faster than second place. The race was won by Weber State who had each of their top-five racers finish in the top-15.
Preview The Bengals are back in action Nov. 13th, running the NCAA Mountain Regionals in Albuquerque, N.M. The two top finishing teams at Regionals receive an automatic bid to the NCAA National Championships in Louisville, Ky. The remaining positions at Nationals are filled by compiling each team's record in races against the teams who qualified for Nationals and sending those with the best records against these teams.
Houle believes one thing the team should focus on in the next two weeks is keeping a mental edge in any environment.
