The Utah cross country team finished in fourth place last weekend at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. for the third year in a row.
While the consistency seems like a positive thing, Utes head coach Kyle Kepler wasn’t ecstatic about the finish.
“We always want to finish better [than the previous year],” Kepler said. “The field this year was not as deep as years past, so it was a little disappointing to finish in fourth again.”
Although the team could have done better, it is hard to imagine the duo of Susannah Hurst and Rebekah Winterton doing much better than they did. Winterton led the way for Utah with a third-place finish with a time of 21:22, while Hurst was not far behind in fourth with a time of 21:26.
Not only did Winterton and Hurst finish well, but they weren’t too far behind Stanford duo Jessica Tonn and Aisling Cuffe (a 2012 All-American runner) who finished first and second, respectively, in the race.
“I wanted to place higher than I did here last year, which I definitely did,” Hurst said. “This year, I made it happen. Rebekah and I worked together and started to pick people off together. At the end of the race, we finished together.”
Kepler has been impressed with the races put together by Winterton and Hurst, but said he is not surprised by their good start to the season.
“They ran great races,” he said. “They were in the top 20 from the start. It’s funny because they both have different running styles, but once they get connected, they run pretty well together. That is what happened in this race.”
After promising races from Winterton and Hurst, it took a little while before the next Utah runner crossed the finish line. Redshirt sophomore Andrea Chavez finished in 32nd place with a time of 22:30. Rounding out the top five for the Utes were AuraLea Fain and Becky Sarmiento, who finished in 52nd and 70th places respectively.
While those were not terrible finishes, the veterans of Utah’s team are still trying to help out some of the younger runners as they adjust to the college races.
“Each race is a learning experience,” Hurst said. “We need to learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses so we can work together during races. Knowing where everyone is in the race and just being able to help out in any way you can is important.”
The Utes have a long break before they compete again. Next on the schedule is the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Ind., on October 19. While the team has been tested early, this is the event where runners will really find out where they stack up against Pac-12 and national competition.
“We have 21 days before this next race, where we will really find out where we stand,” Kepler said over the weekend. “We need to sharpen some things out and get healthier. We want to be more focused physically and mentally, but particularly mentally. We will get some longer runs and intervals in, but don’t want to be peaking quite yet. We still have a lot of work to do.”