Jonathan Match
ISU Sports Information
The Idaho State University cross country men and women’s teams headed to Salt Lake City, Utah for the 2019 NCAA Mountain Region Championships on Nov. 15.
The race was held at the Rose Park Golf Course in SLC with the women’s race kicking off at 11 a.m. and the men’s meet scheduled shortly after at 12 p.m. Both teams hoped to improve off of last year’s women’s 17th place finish and the men’s 12th place finish.
Unfortunately, the Bengals didn’t reach that goal as the women’s team finished in 18th place and the men’s team finished 14th in the Mountain Region, signaling the end of the 2019 cross country season.
The Bengals faced fierce competition this year. On the men’s side, the Orange and Black competed against the first, second and third nationally-ranked teams in Northern Arizona, BYU and Colorado respectively.
On the women’s side, the Orange and Black faced off against four top-10 teams in No. 3 BYU, No. 8 Colorado, No.9 Utah and No. 10 New Mexico.
The women’s team started the day with their 6K championship race on the Rose Park course. Molly Olsen crossed the finish line first for the Bengals in 75th place, with a time of 21:52.1. Katie Weedn was next in, finishing 82nd with a time of 21:56.9.
Madi Kenyon finished 109th, running a time of 22:49.4 and Rachel McGovern finished 111th finishing the course in 22:53.5.
Haven Lambrite was the next to finish, running the course in 22:57.1. She was followed by Laura Alicke and Mya McKown rounding out the Bengal women.
The team finished 18th overall with a score of 492.
BYU won the women’s event with a score of 70, New Mexico finished second and Air Force came in third.
The men’s team followed with their 10K championship race. Zak Montoya crossed the line first for the Bengals, finishing 65th with a time of 32:22.2. He was followed by Jesse Allena and Spencer Nelson who finished 68th and 75th and ran times of 32:33.7 and 32:48.9 respectively.
Joe Petty finished next for the Bengals, crossing the line 85th with a time of 33:03.8.
The Orange and Black were rounded out by Ethan Field, Garrett Condelario and D’artangnan Kilgore who finished with times of 33:47.8, 33:53.8 and 34:01.6.
Northern Arizona won the meet with a score of 21 points. They were followed by the University of Colorado in second and BYU in third.
The Bengal distance runners take a short break and then are back on January 10th as Idaho State hosts the return of the Snake River Open in Pocatello, Idaho to open the 2020 indoor track and field season.
