Princeton, New Jersey – Idaho State Cross Country traveled all the way to the Eastern seaboard this weekend to compete at the 52nd annual Joe Handelman Fall Classic, hosted by the University of Princeton. This marked one of the further meets the Bengals have gone to in the last few years, as well as their last regular season competition before Big Sky Conference Championships in two weeks time.
On one of the fastest courses in the nation, Senior
Natalya Babcock took the front for the Bengals and never looked back, clocking a time of 22:08 over 6k in 44th place and leading the team to a 17th place finish. Seniors
Alivia Johnson and Allie Lemons followed closely behind, with 22:41 and 22:52 respectively for 78th and 88th place. Closing out our scoring positions,
Kamber Scott and
Ava Berg closed hard to finish in 101st and 123rd, with times of 23:09 and 23:30. Their one through five time spread was only 81 seconds, which shows considerable depth, and will only improve as conference draws closer.
Raegan Borg and
Elise Wright finalized the team finish, as they were close behind Berg at 23:45 and 23:49. The Idaho State Women have shown season-long improvement in times and spread, and looking ahead to conference will hope to culminate the season's worth of training into a hyper-competitive meet.
The men side once again battled back and forth, as Jacob DeTemple came out as the lead Bengal, leading the team to a 16th place finish behind his 25:32 8k performance in 68th place.
Kaleb Burnett and
Jackson Koontz continued to lock it down for the team, finishing in 85th and 103rd in times of 25:48 and 26:01. Rounding out the scoring five were
Tayvien Biancuzzo and
Brent Clark in 128th and 133rd and times of 26:28 and 26:35.
Sam Jeppsen rounded out the team with a 147th place finish in 27:04 over 8k. The men eclipsed their previous scoring spread with a mark of 63 seconds between their first and fifth, which will help tremendously come conference competition.
With this being Idaho State's final regular season meet and the furthest traveled, the Bengals now look ahead to Arizona, as they travel to the Big Sky Conference Championship in weeks time for their first post-season meet in Flagstaff.. They will look to see how they stack up against their conference rivals before the NCAA Mountain Regionals, with Big Sky occurring on October 30th.
