Harriers travel to Provo
In a season where the cross country team has traveled to Notre Dame, Stanford and other big meets, it faces what may be the most important challenge Saturday when it travels to Provo for the NCAA Mountain Regional Meet.
The men’s team is currently ranked 21st in the nation and hopes to prove this weekend they are even better than that.
“We’re happy to be ranked, but we believe that we are better than our ranking,” junior Mitch Zundel said.
The team hopes to improve on last year’s ninth place finish. As a team, their goal is to take second behind Colorado who is ranked first in the nation.
With the high expectations that come with being ranked nationally, senior Brick Bergeson said this year’s regional has a different feeling than others he has competed in.
“It’s just different because in the past we saw the regional meet as our last of the season. This year we just see it as a stepping stone to nationals,” Bergeson said.
The Aggies will need to be at their best this weekend because they will be facing tough competition.
Amongst the 18 other men’s teams competing, six are ranked in the top 25 nationally. Those teams are Air Force (No. 15), BYU (No. 12), Colorado (No. 1), Colorado State (No. 23), Northern Arizona (No. 9) and Southern Utah (No. 25).
The women’s team has also been successful this year. Four of the women’s teams competing are ranked nationally. This will be just the second time the women’s team has competed in a 6k race this season. The other time was at the Stanford Invitational where they placed fifth, only behind four teams that were ranked nationally. The women’s team finished eighth in last year’s regional.
Zundel said, “Come out, cheer us on. The more people that we have, the better. It’s Exit 266 in Provo.”