Cross Country
Flu season has found a new victim in the Ute Cross Country team, plaguing the runners last week and into Saturday’s Mountain West Conference championships.
The Utes took home fifth place in the 6K run — led by sophomore Alyssa Abbott and juniors Lauren Endersen and Chelsea DiGrazia. Abbott finished 20th with a time of 22:37. Enderson came in 24th with a time of 22:50, while DiGrazia finished 25th.
“I think Alyssa, Chelsea and Lauren had great individual races, and those three really kept us in it,” coach Kyle Kepler said. “Our spread, one-through-four, was 15 seconds. But we didn’t run hard enough and it wasn’t meant to be. We obviously need to take better care of ourselves heading into the championship week. That’s something we need to address when we get home, and we need to make sure that it doesn’t happen again next year.”
Colorado State won both the team title along with the individual title.
The Utes will now travel to Ogden for the NCAA Mountain Regional on Nov. 11.
Swimming
The Ute swimming team saw the potential to build upon their season-opening win vanish after Saturday’s meet.
The Ute women lost to both Arkansas and Denver, while the Ute men were defeated by Denver.
Denver defeated the Utes by a score of 163-137, while the Arkansas thumped Utah with a score of 176-121.
Freshman Natalie Edge took home first place in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle, while fellow freshman Maiya Otsuka finished second in the 400-meter IM.
The 400 free relay team of Kristina Evans, Emily Judd, Jana Willsey and Chelsea Reopelle came in second with a time of 3:33.61.
The Ute men were cut down by Denver with a score of 168.5-111.5, putting them at 0-1 this season. The Ute freshman continued to perform with Garret Beaman and Rick Mason winning some events. Beaman took first in 50 and 100 free and placed second in the 100-meter backstroke. Tanner Foster, Marco Ferraro and George Evans, along with Beaman, tied for first in the 400 free relay.
The Ute men will next be in action at Arizona State on November 9. Afterward, both the men and women will take on UNLV at home on Nov. 10.