#22 Utah Cross Country takes 16th at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational

Friday, October 13

Madison, Wis.

All Day

University of Utah

Wisconsin Invitational

#22 Utah Cross Country takes 16th at Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational

10/13/2017 5:18 PM | Cross Country

2017 Nutty Women Championship Results 2017 Nutty Women Open Results

Grayson Murphy led the way with a second place overall finish.

MADISON, Wisc. – Led by a second-place finish by Grayson Murphy, the 22nd-ranked Utah cross country team finished in 16th place at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Friday morning.

"Unbelievable performance by Grayson Murphy as she took second overall," head coach Kyle Kepler said. "She was up with the front group the whole way and with a mile to go she worked her way up to the runner-up spot and I believe she ran one of the top-10 fastest times ever ran on this course so outstanding job by her."

Grayson Murphy finished the 6-km course in a time of 19:39.4 to capture the second-place finish in a field of 225 finishers. Coming in behind Murphy was sophomore Poppy Tank who finished the race in a time of 20:34.4 which was good for a 42nd-place finish and sophomore Amanda Gehrich who finished in 76th-place with a time of 21:00.6.

"Another great performance that will kind of get lost in this is Poppy Tank, our number two runner," Kepler said. "I thought she ran outstanding, and she ran a minute faster than she did last year on this course so I really feel good about her improvement and where she is at."

Rounding out the five scorers for the Utes in the championship race were seniors Hannah McInturff and Louise Mercer. McInturff finished the race in 163rd with a time of 21:55.1 and Mercer finished in 166th place with a time of 21:56.8.

Also competing for the Utes in the championship race was freshman Trina Moreno and senior Jessica Sams. Moreno finished in 171st place with a time of 21:58.5 and Sams finished in 186th place with a time of 22:11.7.

"Those two big scores that we had to take in the 160's, we just can't have that," Kepler explained. "But Trina Moreno, a true freshman in her first big time race like this I thought she ran great. Running under 22 minutes in her first 6k, I thought she handled the meet very well."

As a team, Utah finished in 16th place with 449 team points. No. 3 ranked New Mexico took home the team title with 87 points followed by sixth-ranked San Francisco (126 points) and seventh-ranked North Carolina State in third (169 points). Utah finished fourth among the Pac-12 teams behind seventh-place Washington (257), eighth-place Stanford (292) and 15th-place California (444).

"As a team, we took 16th and honestly we were disappointed by that," Kepler explained. "We were really hoping that we were going to finish in the top ten again, and we probably didn't hurt ourselves but we will probably lose a few spots in the rankings and just didn't take full advantage of an opportunity to help ourselves later in the season."

Several Utes also competed in the open race on Friday morning. Senior Dakota Grossman led the Utes with a 41st-place finish in a time of 22:11.3. Following up behind Grossman was junior Caitlin Faust who took 52nd with a time of 22:18.7 and freshman Aubrey Argyle who took 58th

with a time of 22:29.5. Freshman Bella Williams finished in 82nd place with a time of 23:11.1 and sophomore Nicole Griffiths finished in 89th with a time of 23:30.5.

The Utes have a weekend off before competing at the Pac-12 Championships on Oct. 27. The conference meet will be held in Eugene, Ore.