The Utah cross country team came into the Stanford Invitational with a healthy roster and came away with a tie for sixth place out of 33 teams competing with 227 points in the six-kilometer race.
“We definitely ran our best team race of the season,” head coach Kyle Kepler said. “It was very controlled and the 6K was a definite help for us today and didn’t work against us.”
The Utes, however, didn’t win sixth place outright as UC Irvine and Chico State also scored the same number of overall points that resulted in a three-way tie. Host Stanford won the event with 43 total points.
This is still a significant improvement from last year when the Utes finished tenth overall. This year, the Utes were able to improve by having five of their runners finish in the Top 70.
Two runners who finished in the Top 70, Chelsea DiGrazia and Alyssa Abbott, finished one after the other. DiGrazia finished first of the two by coming in No. 30 with a time of 22:19 while Abbott finished No. 31 with a time of 22:20.
Lauren Endersen and Janett Ern also finished strong at Nos. 46 and 54, respectively. Endersen clocked in at 22:40 while Ern came in at 22:46. Kellie Anderson rounded out the top finishers for the Utes with a 66th place finish and a time of 23:02.
“We finished strong today,” Kepler said. “But we will still build as we approach more of our big races.”
Next, the Utes will head to Orem for the Utah Valley University Invitational on Friday.