POCATELLO, Idaho – Idaho State coach
Nate Houle wanted the Arturo Barrios Invitational to be a tune up for the Big Sky Conference championships. If Saturday's performance in College Station, Texas as in indication, the Bengals should perform well at conference.
In the 32 teams that competed in the women's 6Krace, Idaho State finished eight. In the men's 8K race ISU finished 12
th out of 32 teams.
"I had us projected to finish 11th on the women and 16th for the men going into this so we improved on both of those," Houle said.
The women finished a head of UTEP, TCU, Baylor, Louisville, and Texas Tech. The men beat Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU, Tulane, Texas State.
"We came here to prepare physically but also mentally for the speed and intensity that we're going to encounter at the Big Sky Championships in a couple of weeks from now," Houle said. "This is our first time racing on a flat course at sea level so we wanted to get out hard and really see what everyone was capable of doing. It was really good to see everyone step up to the line and run the way we had planned. It can be intimidating to get out as hard as a race like this requires and can lead to people panicking when they feel their legs getting heavy so early in such a long race. I'm proud of everyone putting themselves out there and really committing to a pace they've never been able to handle previously. Both teams finished higher than expected and we had a lot of individual improvements."
Zak Montoya led the men with a 12
th place finish out of 261 participants with a time of 23:56.7. After 2K Montoya was sitting in 62
nd place. After the next recorded split at the 5.7K mark, Montoya had climbed to 22
nd before finishing in 12
th.
"I am really happy to see Zak reach his very ambitious goal of breaking 24 minutes over 8k (4:47/mi pace) individually," Houle said.
Collin Dylla finished 42
nd with a time of 24:32.3. D'Artangnan Kilgore ran a 24:57.3.
Brandon Walker crossed the finish line with a time of 25:30.2 and
Sam Jones finished with a mark of 26:14.9.
"Our supporting cast, meaning our 2-5 runners, stepped up in a big way today," Houle said. "
Eric Christen really ran an amazing race relative to where he's been so far this season. This made all the difference for our team scores and great to see as a coach.
On the women's side,
Cassandra Vasquez was the top finisher at 32
nd place with a time of 21:28.4.
Madi Kenyon finished 47
th in a women's race that had 267 competitors. Kenyon finished with a time of 21:38.0.
Laura Alicke finished with a time of 21:41.2 while
Keely Wolf crossed the finish line with a time of 22 minutes.
Katie Weedn finished with a time of 22:07.1,
Mya McKown had a time of 22:17.0 and
Haven Lambrite 22:47.6.
"
Katie Weedn didn't have the race she wanted but she'll be back and when she is we will be even better as a team," Houle said.
The Big Sky Conference championships are Oct. 30 in Portland.
