The Utah women’s cross country team competed in Logan last weekend, where the Utes finished in second place to the hosting Utah State. It’s early in the season, so the overall team placement isn’t much of a concern to the team, especially since the Utes rested many of their top runners. There was still plenty to learn and experience to be gained over the weekend though.
“Overall I was quite pleased,” said head coach Kyle Kepler. “We only ran one of our top five girls and then another of our top eight or nine.”
The Utes were led by Nicole Rietz, who placed second overall. Susannah Spencer (nee Hurst) came in just behind in third for Utah, followed by Jocelyn Todd, who came in sixth. Utah started the race very quickly, and had many of their runners leading the pack early on.
“They were aggressive at the start, then we started to fade and fell back,” Kepler said. “We’ll learn from that.”
Experiences like this are important for the athletes to learn from and improve upon. If mistakes are correctly approached and fixed, they are much less likely to happen again in the future and may actually leave the team better off than before.
“They’ll learn from that, and to control themselves,” Kepler said. “In the past we haven’t been as aggressive at the first, and the race has gotten away from us early.”
The Utes looked strong at the start but, as mentioned, they slowly faded back. It’s something Kepler and the team will work on as they slowly start to add in more of the top runners as the season goes on.
“We just have to finish a little better,” Kepler said. “We’ve got to battle a little bit better during the last part of the race, and just find good rhythm.”
The mentality of going all-out is important for all college athletes to have, especially in a sport where giving it your all is essential. And it’s clear early on in the season that Kepler’s squad isn’t lacking in that area.
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