McKenna places 34th at cross country pre-nationals
The Utah State men’s and women’s cross country teams headed to Terra Haute, Ind. for the annual NCAA Pre-National Invitational on Saturday, finishing with strong individual performances. The Aggie men were led by junior Brian McKenna, who finished the 8,000-meter race in 24 minutes, 21.3 seconds, coming in 34th overall. The mark was the highest for a USU runner at the event since Trevor Ball came in fifth during the 2005 meet.
“Brian’s 34th place finish is the best Aggie finish we have had in a little while at pre-nationals,” said Utah State head coach Gregg Gensel. “We are pretty proud of him today.”
McKenna was followed closely by junior Daniel Howell, who came in 44th overall in a time of 24:32.1. Propelled by these two finishes, the USU men came in 22nd out of 36 teams. Given the quality of the competition, Gensel said he was pleased with the performance.
“This meet is huge in the number of athletes and teams,” Gensel said. “It is sometimes easy to get lost in the pack. I think our athletes did a great job of staying together and sticking to our plan.”
“Pre-nats,” as the race is commonly called, is a pivotal meet in the cross country season because it gives teams a good idea of where they stand and also gives athletes a chance to race on the nationals course. The race regularly draws runners and teams from all over the country, and this year more than 1,600 athletes competed in this prestigious event.
Overall, the race was won by the defending national champion and course record holder, Samuel Chelanga from Liberty. He was followed by Ryan Hill (North Carolina State), Daniel Chenoweth (Harvard), Trevor Dunbar (Portland), and Miles Batty (BYU). The men’s team race was won by Oklahoma, followed by BYU and Colorado close behind in third.
On the women’s side, USU was led by sophomore Ruth Hilton, who came in 77th in the 6,000-meter race with a time of 21:38.8. Hilton was followed by senior Kim Quinn, who clocked 22:12.9 to come in 141st and help the Aggies finish 28th out of 40 teams.
“Our goal was to see improvement and to help prepare for WAC Championships,” Gensel said. “We really came out and did that today.”
The women’s race was won by Lucy Van Dalen (Stony Brook) in 20:08. Van Dalen was followed closely by Laura Tremblay (Colorado), Kathy Kroeger (Stanford), Laura Hoer (North Carolina State), and Emily Jones (Georgetown). The team title went to Georgetown, with Colorado barely edging Stanford for second.
Utah State will now have a week off as they prepare for the WAC Championships on Oct. 30 in Reno, Nev. The Aggie men have been unstoppable in the recent past ,winning the last five WAC team championships. USU will look to extend their streak to six with defending champion Brian McKenna at the helm. McKenna has led the Aggies in every race so far this year, and is looking to improve even more after his impressive sophomore season, where he was the individual WAC champion and the WAC Athlete of the Year.
The Aggie women won the WAC championships in 2008, but come into this race with plenty of motivation after finishing second behind New Mexico State in 2009. Utah State will be led by junior Jessie Chugg and sophomore Ruth Hilton as they look to regain the WAC title.
– mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu