Coming off a fifth place finish at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind., the Utah women’s cross country team received 21 points in the National Coaches Poll and is now No. 4 in the Mountain Region.
Head coach Kyle Kepler thinks the Utes’ new ranking is great for the team, but they have to stay focused on their upcoming meet.
“We have the third-place team in our sights,” Kepler said. “We know that we are similar to them, but have to do a better job of packing up and staying together when we run. To be as close as we were to two ranked teams at Notre Dame is very encouraging, and we know that we can run at that level. We rely on our first two runners [Sarah Feeny and Hannah McInturff] heavily, but if we do that too much it can cost us in some big races.”
After the performance in South Bend, the Utes travelled to Louisville, Ky. for NCAA Pre-Nationals. Utah started off its day in Louisville with seven runners racing in the six-kilometer run. Sophomore Hannah McInturff and junior Erin Finn were stride for stride coming down the final stretch, but McIntruff beat Finn out by a tenth of a second and finished fifth in the race, with a time of 20:09.
Sarah Feeny finished in ninth place with a time of 20:21.1 for the Utes. Senior Susannah Hurst finished in 98th place with a time of 21:07.5, losing to Lisa Ziegler of Mississippi State, who came in at 97th place with a time of 21:07.4. Jessica Sams finished in 113th place, running the six kilometers in 21:12.3. Senior Andrea Chavez finished in 139th place with a time of 21:22.1 and crossed the finish line just .3 of a second before Rosie Hiles of Bradley.
Shaylen Crook took 154th place with a time of 21:29.6, and junior Giselle Slotboom was runner No. 281 to cross the finish line, posting a time of 22:26. Utah finished sixth as a team in this run and earned 350 points.
“We had another very good performance,” Kepler said. “We beat several nationally ranked teams, and I am very happy with the sixth-place finish. We finished in front of Georgetown, who is ranked seventh in the country. It was a good battle all the way around for us.”
Utah had five runners in the six-kilometer open race. Senior Jocelyn Todd finished in sixth with a time of 21:28.7. Sophmore Becky Sarmiento finished in 11th place with a time of 21:49.8. Sadie Wassum finished in 21st place, crossing the finish line with a time of 22:11.8. Kate Stringfellow took 27th place at 22:20.9, and Dana Snell finished right behind her in 28th place with a time of 22:21.1. Utah finished second in this run and earned 38 points.
“Today’s meet shows the kind of depth we have,” Kepler said. “We get to run 10 at the Pac-12 meet, which will be a tough decision since everyone is training well. We have two more weeks to train before we have to make that decision. We are looking forward to getting back and beginning training for Pac-12s.”
Utah’s next meet is the Pac-12 Championships in Colfax, Wash., scheduled for October 30.
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