Friday evening race kicks off cross country season

Friday, September 1

Missoula, Mont.

Montana

Clash of the Inland Northwest

8/31/2017 1:11:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

By: Montana Sports Information

For the second year in a row, the Montana cross country teams will get an early jump on their season at the Clash of the Inland Northwest.

The meet that features rotating hosts this year lands in Missoula. The six-team race will be held on Friday at the UM Golf Course.

Competing will be teams from Montana, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Gonzaga, Lewis-Clark State and Whitworth.

The women's four-kilometer race begins at 5 p.m., the men's six-kilometer race starts at 5:45 p.m., with both using a spectator-friendly two-kilometer loop.

Both races will be shorter than any other the teams will tackle this fall.

"It's a perfect race to get your feet wet, especially for the freshmen," said coach Vicky Pounds. "I tell the kids that this is just a starting point to see where we're at."

Friday is the first of three September races for the Grizzlies, who will compete at Montana State on Saturday, Sept. 16, then host the Montana Invitational on Friday, Sept. 29.

The teams will travel to Pocatello in October for the Idaho State Invitational, then close out the month at the Big Sky Conference championship, this year hosted by Weber State in Ogden, Utah.

Montana will return to Utah for the NCAA Mountain Regional, held in Logan on Nov. 10.

The Montana women's team finished fifth in the Big Sky last fall and was selected third in this month's preseason coaches' poll, with one first-place vote.

The Grizzlies open the season ranked ninth in the Mountain Region by the USTFCCCA, behind only Northern Arizona, the league's preseason favorite, among Big Sky schools.

All for good reason. Montana returns its top three runners in senior Reagan Colyer and juniors Jessica Bailey and Emily Pittis. And yet it was a newcomer, Maryn Lowry, a transfer from Iowa State, who led the team at the 3.4-mile River City Roots race in Missoula on Saturday morning.

Lowry, Colyer and Pittis all finished with times of 20:46, as did fifth-year senior Evie Tate, a transfer from Clemson who is out of eligibility for cross country.

Bailey, who is only now returning to some quality training after suffering a lower-leg injury in late May, was Montana's No. 5 runner at the race.

The men's team was picked ninth in the Big Sky preseason poll and will have 11 of its 13 athletes on the course on Friday. Sitting out will be senior Nathan Wellington and freshman Kyle Peterson.

Headlining the racers on Friday will be junior Jonathan Eastwood and senior Paden Alexander. Eastwood led Montana at five of six races last fall, finishing 24th at the Big Sky championship. Alexander was top-three at all six races, leading the Grizzlies once, at the Montana Invitational.

But it was Micah Drew, a fifth-year senior, who led the team at the River City Roots race, finishing nearly 40 seconds ahead of his nearest teammate in a time of 17:53.

Friday's race will be the collegiate debut for freshmen Andrea Baratte, Kyle Kredo and Jacob Lamb.

"For our youngest guys coming in, their longest race was probably 5k in high school," said Pounds. "I'm expecting a lot from them on this course. It's fairly flat, and I have them more on the trail, so it will be hard and fast."