USU cross country has strong showing at Pre-Nationals
Utah State University’s men’s cross country team finished ninth in a field of 35 at the Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Ind. on Saturday, and the women finished 32 out of 37 without their top runner.
USU Coach Gregg Gensel said he was satisfied with the results of the meet.
“I think we did what we wanted to do,” Gensel said. “We wanted to show that we are one of the top 20 teams and we did that.”
Mike Nielson led the men’s team again, finishing 21st with a time of 24:28, followed by Mitch Zundel, 28th at a time of 24:42, and Steve Prescott at 53rd with a time of 24:58.
Both the men’s and women’s teams from Stanford won the meet. The men’s top 10 were Stanford, Northern Arizona , BYU, Indiana, Butler, North Carolina State, Dartmouth, Arizona State, USU and Princeton.
The women competed without their best runner, Lida Clapier, who sat out the meet with a stress fracture.
When asked how much the injury hurt the team in the final standings, Gensel said, “I don’t know. I don’t like to speculate, but I’m sure it could have helped [to have Clapier].”
He said she probably would have finished in the top 50 which would have improved the team’s standing.
Audrey Golightly led the women with a time of 22:03, finishing 101st overall. She was followed by Melanie Marek, who finished 120th at 22:11 and Kristen Coombs who came in 160th with a time of 22:40.
“The girls ran well,” Gensel said. “I’m proud of them.”
He said he is hopeful Clapier will return in time for the Big West Championships Nov. 2 at the University of California Riverside. Clapier will continue rest to allow the injury to heal.
Running at the site of the NCAA National Championships in Indiana did a couple of things for the team, Gensel said.
“It gives you an opportunity to look at the site,” he said. “Probably the most important thing it does for the team is giving them experience at running in such a large meet with so many competitors,” Gensel said.
He said the next thing is getting the team ready for the Big West Championship meet.
“I think both of the teams have a chance of doing really well [at Riverside],” Gensel said. “If they run to their potential, they’ll do that.
“We like to think we have a chance [to win the championship] but that’s why they hold the meet,” Gensel said. “Our goal every year is to win the championship because we feel like we have a team that can do that.”
Gensel said the team was improving and as each individual gets better, it helps the team as a whole.
-royburton@cc.usu.edu