Murphy Second as Utah Cross Country Places Fifth at NCAA Regional

Friday, November 10

Logan, Utah

All Day

University of Utah

NCAA Mountain Regional

Photo by: Brooke Frederickson

Murphy Second as Utah Cross Country Places Fifth at NCAA Regional

11/10/2017 4:35 PM | Cross Country

Women's Results Photo Gallery

Both Murphy and Tank earn All-Region Honors.

LOGAN, Utah - Senior Grayson Murphy led the Utah cross country team with a second-place overall finish while the team finished in fifth place at the NCAA Mountain Regional early Friday morning.

"I thought we ran probably our best race of the year," head coach Kyle Kepler said. "We finished in fifth and were ranked sixth coming in so we beat our ranking and that was good."

Murphy finished the six-kilometer race in a time of 20:04.0 to earn all-region honors for the second-straight year. With her second place finish, she earned an automatic bid to the NCAA national meet as an individual.

Also earning all-region honors sophomore Poppy Tank with a 21st-place finish (20:42.9). Tank is also a two-time all-region honoree.

Rounding out the top five scorers for the Utes was sophomore Amanda Gehrich, senior Louise Mercer, and senior Jessica Sams. Gehrich finished the race in 26th place with a time of 20:57.0, Mercer finished in 48th place with a time of 21:20.1, and Sams finished the race in a time of 21:22.0 to earn 52nd place.

"I thought Louise Mercer and Jessica Sams, who both ran their last race in a Utah jersey, ran great and did exactly what we needed them to do so we could finish fifth or higher and I credit them for that," Kepler said.

Also competing for the Utes was senior Hannah McInturff and freshman Trina Moreno. McInturff finished with a time of 21:38.5 to take home 72nd place, and Moreno finished in 101st place with a time of 22:09.1 in her first NCAA Regional.

As a team, Utah finished in fifth place with 149 points. Taking home the team title was No.1 overall ranked Colorado with 62 team points. Finishing in second place was No. 2 New Mexico (70 points), third place was No. 18 BYU (113 points), and earning fourth place was No. 15 Utah State (125 points).

Team NCAA selections will be announced on Saturday, Nov. 11.