The 20th-ranked Utah cross-country team is coming off a fifth-place finish at the Pac-12 Championships, and is gearing up for the NCAA Mountain Regional this Friday in Albuquerque.
The Utes will run the six-kilometer race in hopes to qualify for the NCAA Championships, a reward that sophomore Hannah McInturff says would be amazing for this team.
“Right now, our team is in a really good spot to qualify as a team, and hopefully if everyone runs the way they have been running, we should be able to qualify.” McInturff said, “[Going to Nationals] would be a very cool experience, and a great reward for all of the hard work we put in this year.”
Twelve Utes are running in the crucial race. Andrea Chavez, Shaylen Crook, Sarah Feeny, Susannah Hurst, Hannah McInturff, Jessica Sams, Becky Sarmiento, Giselle Slotboom, Dana Snell, Kate Stringfellow, Jocelyn Todd and Sadie Wassum will all compete to try and make a push for the National meet.
Head coach Kyle Kepler is excited about the chance to get into the NCAA Championships, but also wants his team to not worry about what can happen, and focus on the actual race itself
“This is what we have been waiting for all year,” Kepler said. “We have run well and have put ourselves in a good position heading into this meet. We want to try and finish third if we can … We just need to sharpen things up and go out and have our best race of the year. Our goal will be to not worry about the outcome, but the process of the race and try to run from one kilometer to the next as efficiently as we can.”
Last year at the Mountain Regional, the Utes finished seventh in the team standings. Leading the Utes on the quest to improve upon that finish this year are sophomores Hannah McInturff and Sarah Feeny. Both performed well at the Pac-12 Championships, with McInturff coming in tenth place and Feeny finishing in 21st place.
A total of 31 teams compete at the NCAA Championships; 18 of those teams receive automatic bids. The top-two team finishes in each Regional Championship receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The remaining 13 bids are at-large bids — a selection committee reviews the regular season and finish at Regional Championships to decide who gets in. Runners can also qualify individually based on their results at the Mountain Regional.
With an at-large bid very much in play for the Utes, Kepler could not be happier with the state of his team right now.
“It’s exciting to be around our program right now,” he said. “The kids are excited and we just have to do what we have done all year. Like I said, we need to focus on the process of our races and not worry about the outcome. I think that if we can do that, we will be able to achieve the goals that we are striving for.”
The NCAA Championships will be held in Louisville, Ky. on Saturday, Nov. 21. The Utes have never qualified as a team for the NCAA Championships.
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