#27 Utah Cross Country Ready to Compete at Pac-12 Championships

Friday, October 27

Eugene, Ore.

12:00 PM

University of Utah

Pac-12 Championships

#27 Utah Cross Country Ready to Compete at Pac-12 Championships

10/24/2017 3:44 PM | Cross Country

Six nationally ranked teams will face off at the conference meet in Eugene.

SALT LAKE CITY – The 27th ranked Utah cross country team gets ready for the Pac-12 Championships this Friday, Oct. 27, in Eugene, Ore. The Utes will compete in the six-kilometer race at the Springfield Golf Club scheduled to start at 11:10 a.m. PT. Coverage of the Pac-12 Championship races will be live on the Pac-12 Network starting at 11 a.m. PT.

"A very flat and very fast race is expected, and we currently have six teams that are ranked in the top 30 in the country right now," head coach Kyle Kepler stated. "It should definitely be a great race and right now the weather is looking perfect for race time."

Competing for the Utes this weekend will be seniors Grayson Murphy, Hannah McInturff, Jessica Sams, Louise Mercer and Dakota Grossman, junior Caitlin Faust, sophomores Poppy Tank, Amanda Gehrich, and freshman Trina Moreno and Aubrey Argyle.

Murphy is ranked sixth in the latest FloTrack individual rankings. She has finished in the top five in both meets she competed this season (second at Wisconsin and fourth at Notre Dame). Murphy finished 12th at the Pac-12 Championships last season. McInturff earned All-Pac-12 honors in 2015 with a 10th-place finish.

"As long as everybody is healthy, we will race our ten and see where we are at," Kepler said. "Hopefully those guys can stay packed up together in the groups they need to stay in and we can keep the gaps between the groups as minimal as possible, that's where we got in trouble at Wisconsin."

The Pac-12 Championships will be hosted by the Oregon, and will feature six nationally ranked teams from the latest U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association national poll. The six teams include No. 1 overall ranked Oregon, No. 3 Colorado, No. 13 Washington, No. 14 Stanford, No. 27 Utah, and No. 28 California.

"Everybody is excited, Coach Mack and I are excited for these gals. They have had a great two weeks of practice and really enjoyed watching them workout," Kepler explained. "We will make sure we are rested and ready to go and like I said this is just step one of the Championship season and we want to get off to a good start."