2009 performance list
The University of Montana cross country teams will race in Missoula for the only time this season when the Grizzlies host the Montana Invitational Saturday morning at the UM Golf Course. The women’s five-kilometer race is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. The men’s eight-kilometer race will start at 10:30 a.m.
Also competing Saturday will be Montana State, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, College of Idaho, Carroll and Flathead Valley Community College. The Big Sky Distance Project will have runners in the men’s race.
The Montana women’s team will look similar to the squad that placed third two weekends ago at the Montana State Invitational. Senior Shannon Woodman will not be racing, but the Grizzlies will have junior Kara DeWalt, who’s been recovering from an injury, for the first time this fall.
Others racing will be seniors Leigh Fredrickson and Kim Tritz, juniors Brooke Andrus, Katrina Drennen and Bridgette Hoenke, sophomores Mary Kettering and Kesslee Payne and redshirt freshman Emily Eickholt.
With the recent pullout from the race of Washington State, the Montana women will be the heavy favorites Saturday. The Grizzlies opened the season with a strong performance at Bozeman on Sept. 19, scoring 64 points to finish behind Weber State (36) and Utah Valley (50).
Drennen was second overall to Utah Valley’s Mary Nothum, while Payne was sixth and Andrus 11th.
Montana State had just one runner in the top 30 to finish with 146 points.
The Eastern Washington women dropped duals to Gonzaga, Idaho and Washington State at their season-opening Clash of the Inland Northwest on Sept. 5 and didn’t have a finisher among the top 50 at Washington’s Sundodger Invitational two weekends ago to place eighth out of eight teams.
Last year’s Montana Invitational was dominated by Washington State. The Cougars had six of the top seven runners, with only Drennen in sixth breaking up WSU’s pack.
“It’s unfortunate Washington State couldn’t make it. That’s going to change things tactically for us because they would have been the strongest team in the field,” UM coach Courtney Babcock said. “As it is, we’ll use this as an opportunity to run as a pack a bit longer and try to get our four, five and six runners up with our top three.
“Hopefully they can stay together longer and be closer at the end.”
The men’s race should be much more of a battle, both for the individual and team victories.
As expected, a strong Montana State team looked the part two weekends ago in Bozeman, scoring 53 points to finish second behind Utah State (42). Montana placed fourth with 76 points, just behind third-place Weber State (70).
Patrick Casey broke free of Montana sophomore Lynn Reynolds in the final meters to win the MSU Invitational by one second. The Bobcats’ Matt Atkinson-Adams placed third, while Graydon Curry was 10th.
Reynolds was Montana’s only runner in the top 12 at Montana State. Senior Mac Bloom was 13th, senior Michael Fisher 17th, true freshman Quinton Decker 20th and junior Collin Fehr 24th.
Babcock says both Bloom and Decker are iffy for Saturday’s race due to different ailments.
If Bloom and Decker come through, Montana will have the same 10 athletes competing as raced at MSU: Reynolds, Bloom, Fisher, Decker, Fehr, sophomores Colin O’Neill and Robbie Brooks, redshirt freshmen Cody Lund and Casey Weinman and true freshman Max Hardy.
The Eastern Washington men will also provide a serious challenge to both the Bobcats and Grizzlies. Alex Smyth, who was sixth at last year’s Big Sky championships, and Kyle King have both been named Big Sky Conference Athletes of the Week this season for their performances at the Clash of the Inland Northwest and the Sundodger Invitational.
Smyth and King both placed in the top seven at the highly competitive Sundodger meet two weekends ago, leading the Eagles to a third-place finish (out of eight teams), trailing only Washington and Western Washington.
Montana State’s Nick Atwood and Graydon Curry, both of whom were competing unattached as redshirts, went one-two at last fall’s Montana Invitational. They were followed in the top four by Casey and Reynolds, who once again had a one-second split in their finishing times.
Fisher was fifth.
All of last year’s top five are scheduled to race Saturday.
“Our main goal is to get our two, three and four guys up toward the front a bit more so we can race more evenly with Montana State,” Babcock said. “MSU has two up front (in Casey and Atkinson-Adams), so we need to try to make up some of that difference.”
Up next: After Saturday, Montana will have just one more race weekend prior to the 2009 Big Sky Conference championships, which will be held Saturday, Oct. 31, in Greeley, Colo. The UM women will travel to Terre Haute, Ind., for the Oct. 17 NCAA Pre-Nationals meet. The Griz men will be in Moscow, Idaho, for the Vandal Jamboree race.