Cross Country teams host only home meet
Students probably haven’t heard much about them, and even though they wouldn’t be able to pick any one of them out of a crowd, the Utah State University cross country team has been a successful team at USU this fall.
For the first time in its history, the USU men’s cross-country team is nationally ranked. The poll released this week by the United States Cross Country Coaches Association has the Aggies ranked No. 23 in the nation. However, a national ranking is not what pushes Aggie runners.
“If we wanted recognition, we got into the wrong sport,” said senior Steve Prescott, one of the leaders of this year’s team.
Head coach Gregg Gensel said, “It’s exciting to be ranked, but I don’t think that they are interested in the rankings. They are interested in how well they do.”
They will put that ranking on the line in their only home meet of the season this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at the Logan Golf and Country Club.
The men will run an eight-kilometer (8K) race and the women a five-kilometer (5K) race.
Other schools competing are the University of Valparaiso, Idaho State University, Southern Utah University, BYU-Idaho, Utah Valley State College, the University of Nevada-Reno women and the University of Utah.
Today’s meet follows last week’s Notre Dame Invitational in which the Aggies performed extremely well against some very strong teams.
Mitch Zundell, Steve Prescott and Brick Bergeson all placed in the top 10 overall. They placed fourth, sixth, and 10th, respectively. Kristen Coombs was the top finisher on the women’s side with a time of 18:04.
After this meet, both the men’s and women’s team will compete in the Big West Conference championship race on Saturday, Oct. 27. The meet will be hosted by California Polytechnic University.