The University of Montana cross country teams will officially open their 2009 seasons Saturday when the Grizzlies compete at the Montana State Invitational in Bozeman. The men’s five-mile race will open the meet at 9 a.m. The women’s three-mile race starts at 9:45 a.m.
The races will be held at the Bridger Creek Golf Course.
Fifteen women’s teams and 14 men’s teams are scheduled to compete. Weber State’s women’s and men’s teams will be racing, giving the meet three of the nine Big Sky Conference schools. Other Division I teams competing will be Utah State, Utah Valley and the Utah women’s team.
The Wildcats, who were third at the 2008 Big Sky women’s championship, were picked second in the BSC preseason coaches’ poll, coming in behind unanimous No. 1 Northern Arizona. With 65 points in the poll, WSU came in just in front of Sacramento State (64) and Montana (58).
The Montana State women were picked sixth.
“Weber is ranked ahead of us and racing this weekend, so it will be good for our girls to see where they stand this early in the season,” UM cross country coach Courtney Babcock said. “We have some girls who haven’t raced in a couple of years (because of redshirting the 2008 season), so it will be good for them to get out there and face some competition.”
Racing for Montana will be seniors Leigh Fredrickson, Kim Tritz and Shannon Woodman, juniors Brooke Andrus, Katrina Drennen and Bridgette Hoenke, sophomores Mary Kettering and Kesslee Payne and redshirt freshman Emily Eickholt.
Junior Kara DeWalt is returning from an injury and is expected to be racing by Montana’s home meet on Saturday, Oct. 3.
Sophomore Aleta Jokisch and true freshman Faith Steinbacher are redshirting this season.
Andrus, Kettering, Payne and Eickholt, along with DeWalt, all redshirted in 2008.
“Kesslee is looking great in practice. It’s her first cross country race in a while, as it is with Brooke. Kara probably won’t be back until our home meet (on Oct. 3). Plus Mary Kettering redshirted last year, so expectations are pretty high on the women’s team for this season.”
Weber State’s Natalie Haws, who was fifth, is the only runner who placed in the top five at last year’s MSU Invitational returning in 2009. Haws would go on to place fifth at the 2008 Big Sky meet and 10th at the NCAA Mountain Regional to earn an individual spot to the NCAA championship.
Weber State won the women’s team title at the MSU meet last year. The Wildcats were followed by Utah State, Wyoming, Montana and Utah.
Allie Brosh was Montana’s top finisher in 2008, placing third.
Drennen did not compete last year, but should be a contender for the overall win this time around. She beat Haws at the 2008 Big Sky meet, placing third, but was 35th at the NCAA regional to Haws’ 10th.
“I think for this race, I don’t want Katrina to go out and lead the first half of the race,” Babcock said. “I would like her to stay within herself, and whatever is going on with the race, let the race happen. I don’t want Katrina to dictate how the race goes early on. Doing that should allow her to bring her teammates with her as well.
“In the second half of the race, if she’s feeling good, she can go from there.”
The Montana men will have 10 athletes competing: seniors Mac Bloom and Michael Fisher, junior Collin Fehr, sophomores Greg Lindstrom, Colin O’Neill and Lynn Reynolds, redshirt freshmen Cody Lund and Casey Weinman and true freshmen Quinton Decker and Max Hardy.
Juniors Steven Gimpel and Sean Clark and sophomore Bevan Taylor, who have all used up their redshirt seasons, will miss the race as they recover from injury.
Sophomore Robbie Brooks, who competed for Carroll in 2008, will race once he gets approval from the NCAA.
True freshman Chase Anderson of Chelan, Wash., will redshirt this fall.
The Grizzlies, who were picked fifth in the preseason coaches’ poll, will be chasing both Weber State and Montana State Saturday. The Wildcats were second in the poll, behind unanimous No. 1 Northern Arizona. The Bobcats were third.
“Montana State will be really strong this year, as is Weber State, so Saturday will be a good test for us to see where we stand against those teams,” Babcock said. “First and foremost it’s going to be good to get out there and finally race against some other teams. You kind of need that first race against some other teams to feel like things have really started.
“Our focus for the race will be having a good team performance. We want to work together as a group for as long as we can. But we also know we’re training through this week, so we’re not looking for the guys to have their best race this early in the season. We want to save those performances for later on in the year.”
Reynolds, who was 24 seconds off the lead, was Montana’s top finisher at the meet in 2008, finishing fifth overall. He is the only runner among last year’s top seven returning this year.
Weber State, which had four of the top nine finishers, won the 2008 MSU Invitational. The Wildcats beat out second-place Utah State, third-place Wyoming, fourth-place Montana and fifth-place Utah Valley.
“I feel like our men’s team is definitely a little more packed (than the women’s team),” Babcock said. “On any given week anybody could be in a different position. I think our top four, five, maybe up to six guys should be in a pretty good pack.
“It will be good to see how the freshmen respond to their first collegiate meet, and Collin is racing his first cross country meet since high school.
“Lynn is starting to pull ahead a little in practice, and he’s a good racer, so we’ll see how that goes Saturday.”
Up next: The Grizzlies will host the Montana Invitational Saturday morning, Oct. 3, at the UM Golf Course in Missoula.