Harriers do well at pre-nationals meet in Iowa
The Utah State Harriers managed to come out strong in one of their biggest meets of the season, the pre-nationals meet at the University of Iowa. The men’s cross country team finished 17th in their heat, coming in ahead of Weber State (19th) and conference rival Santa Barbara (21st). The Aggies had a strong finish with Mike Nielson coming in first for the team with 24:13, finishing 29th overall. Other top finishers included David Danley with 24:46 coming in 74th, Clark Bryner with 25:03 finishing 97th; Ryan Griffith had 25:21 for 127th; and Trevor Ball had 25:26 for 139th. Jared Glenn and Heath Wing also ran for Utah State.
The women’s cross country team also ran a strong race, coming in 19th in their heat just behind conference rivals University of Idaho (15th) and Weber State (14th). Freshman Ashley Johnson came in strong at 21:30, in 41st place. Other top runs for the women came from 101st finisher Christi Howell with 22:18, Carol Cabanillas came in 116th with 22:29, Lida Riplinger came in 119th with 22:31, and Tiffany Strickland ran well, coming in 128th with 22:45. Emily Prestwich and Rebeckah Meier also represented the Aggies in Iowa.
“It was a really good meet,” said second-year runner Clark Bryner. “But it was not the best. We are still making improvements.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams were looking to go into this meet strong. The men were looking to beat some nationally ranked teams, something they have been working to do all season. The women, as always, were looking to run strong and try to stay in a pretty tight pack.
Senior runner David Danley said the meet was an important one to the team in realizing their goals for the season.
“All the best teams in the nation were there,” he said. “We were able to beat one or two ranked teams. This was a good meet for us because it gave us a chance to see how we stacked up against the best teams in the nation.”
Cabanillas said the women’s team for the most part had some incredible races.
“The course was a really fast one and most of the girls ran faster,” she said. “Overall, I would have to say the meet was a good one. We had a little bit bigger spread than normal, but otherwise, everyone did really well.”
Senior Emily Prestwich agreed.
“We had a really good pack right in the middle there and were able to keep pretty good contact,” she said. “A couple of the girls, like Johnson and Howell were way up there, they had some great races.”
Both of the teams are now preparing for the big meet of the season, the conference championships in Riverside California. Both the men’s and the women’s teams feel that they are in contention to take conference and are working hard these next two weeks to accomplish that goal.
“Everyone wants to win in the end. If we work hard, run our best, it is feasible that we could achieve our goal,” said Cabanillas. “You never know what can happen. I think that right now we are ranked fourth in the conference, but I think they have us underestimated. All the girls are really working hard and I think that we can do some big things at the meet,” she said.
Danley is thinking along the same lines.
“This meet showed that we definitely deserved to be in the upper echelon of teams in the nation,” he said. “There is room for improvement, but hopefully with all the training and work we are doing, it will put us in the position that we want to be in for conference.”
Bryner said the team is coming down the home stretch of the season.
“The whole season pretty much leads up to this time of the year,” he said. “We have been training since track got over in June and pretty much working our cans off to do well at these meets. If we run well, we will hopefully be able to upset Cal Poly at conference.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu