Upcoming Event: Cross Country versus Nuttycombe Invitational on October 17, 2025 at 9:30 AM
9:30 AM
Cross Country
vs Nuttycombe Invitational
The University of Utah Athletics
Coach Kepler's Weekly Recap - Week 4
10/1/2007 12:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 1, 2007
We couldn't have asked for any better weather conditions. A light, cool coastal breeze and lots of sunshine along with some good competition made it an exciting weekend. This was the first time for six of our eight runners on the Stanford course. Alyssa Abbott and Lauren Lewis both ran it in high school. We arrived on Friday afternoon and did our pre-meet run around campus as the golf course was not open until Saturday morning. That went very smoothly and the team even did their strides on the infield of the Stanford track.
On Saturday morning, we went to the golf course to do a walk of the course. Since we didn't race until almost 5:00 p.m., we had plenty of time and I wanted to get the team out of the hotel and try to make it as normal a day as possible. This adventure took longer than expected. The team information stated that university team packets would not be ready until 1:00 p.m. So, I was not prepared to pay our entry fee or grab the packet when we arrived for the walk around. Of course, what the information did not say is that you needed the wristbands inside the team packet to get onto the course. So even the "most elite" places don't always have every detail ironed out. I was not going to carry around large sums of money if I did not need too. In the end I just went back to the hotel and grabbed the entry fee check. Fortunately, we stayed pretty close to the course so it didn't require a lot of time and I was not interested in arguing with a meet director at that point. Maybe the best thing of all is our team really didn't seem bothered by this scenario at all. Of course, that's how they are. They took that positive of the scenario....being out of the hotel for a longer period of time...and enjoyed the day.
Finally, race time came. We talked about being in a large field and trying to establish good position early. This was also our first 6K race of the year which always leads to a little apprehension because of the extra distance and not wanting to be overly aggressive and pay an ugly price for that at the end.
As the race began, our front two runners really got out well and established themselves into a good spot and pace. However, I was concerned with the rest of our group because at 1K they were too far back. Our 1-5 scoring spread at Montana State was only 30 seconds. At 2k into this race we were already over that. We did have a team strategy and a particular spot on the course where I really wanted them to start racing hard. The 3-5 group did run much better in the second half of the race and finished very well. However, because they dug themselves such a big hole early on, we didn't finish as high as we hoped in the team standings. A top-10 finish at the Stanford meet is a solid finish, however we were only about 30 points from being sixth. In a race that big 30 points really isn't that hard to find. However, I have to remember this is still a very young group in many ways.
I believe everyone ran personal bests for a 6K, and most important to me is that they know it wasn't a perfect race by any means. They know they have more to give and need to challenge themselves in the coming weeks. So overall, it was a very positive and good learning experience for our biggest meets which are yet to come. We all know we are very close to taking another big step in our program which continues to generate excitement. Our performance at Stanford did allow us to move up in the regional rankings to 10th, which is our highest ranking since my arrival as the head coach two years ago.
We compete at the University of Arkansas in the Chile Pepper Invitational in two weeks. This is a highly competitive meet with several nationally ranked teams in attendance. It will be another chance to measure ourselves against the best programs in the country, and race against several teams outside of our region. If the weather is good, the times will be very fast and it's a course our kids really enjoy. I'll be back after that race and let you know how we performed.
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