Cross country women’s team finishes second in BWC
The Utah State cross country team had two unexpected finishes in what may prove to be the key meet of the season for the squad.
The men’s team had a disappointing finish in San Luis Obispo, Calif. this weekend coming in fifth at Big West Conference Championships. However, the women’s team did superbly coming in second place behind league champions UC Santa Barbara.
Sophomore Lida Riplinger led the Aggie women with her sixth-place finish, coming in at 23:01, less than a second behind UC Santa Barbara’s first place runner Stephanie Rothstein who finished at 22:14.8
She was closely followed by freshman Ashley Johnson who finished just 11 seconds behind her for eighth place.
Johnson was followed by Sara Demmick, who had an incredible race, coming in 13th with a time of 23:29 in her best race of the season.
Other top finishes include 15th place Carol Cabanillas with a time of 23:32, 24th place Christi Howell with a time of 23:49, 29th finisher Tiffany Strickland with a time of 24:01, 37th place Emily Prestwich with a time of 24:16 and Rebekah Meier and Carolyn Andrus coming in 40th and 64th with times of 24:22 and 26:11, respectively.
“It felt really good to run, it was a great race,” Riplinger said. “It all just kind of came together. We actually had a couple of girls step up and have some really great races.”
The women’s team was really excited with its second place finish, which is the best the Aggies have done since they won the championship in 1998.
“I was amazed by the tenacity the women ran with,” said Head Coach Greg Gensel. “They really went after it. It is a really tough course but they really ran great. They were able to step it up and run as a team.”
Howell said, “We were really excited with how we did. We were also kind of surprised at a lot of people, there were a lot of good races, especially from Riplinger and Demmick. I think that collectively the girls ran a really smart race. It was a really tough course, but with a lot of work and team effort we were able to have a small gap [between the first Aggie finished and the rest of them].”
Cabanillas said she thought everything came together and the team was real supportive of one another.
She said it was good to know the team can work so well together.
The men’s team, however, had a disappointing finish, coming in fifth overall.
David Danley led the Aggies finishing ninth overall with a time of 25:55, followed by Clark Bryner who came in 16th with a time of 26:16.
Other top Aggie finishes include Ryan Griffeth’s 27th place finish with a time of 26:41, Trevor Ball’s 39th place finish with a time of 27:16, Heath Wing’s 47th place finish with a time of 27:44 and Carsen Campbell and Jared Glenn’s 60th and 67th place finishes with times of 28:29 and 29:43, respectively.
“It has been a really weird season. It hasn’t gone the way we planned at all,” Bryner said. “Last year, we did really well and just expected to do really well again this year because four of our best guys were coming back. It isn’t exactly making us happy.”
Senior Mike Neilson, who got second place last year at conference, had walking pneumonia and was not able to complete the course.
Danley said, “Things just didn’t go right for us, which is disappointing at a big meet. It was a huge blow to the team to have Mike sick, but hopefully we can regroup and come out strong [and healthy] for regionals.”
The fifth place finish is the second time in 12 years that the men’s team has not finished in the top two.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu