Utah Cross Country Ties for First at Montana State Invite

Saturday, September 16

Bozeman, Mont.

All Day

University of Utah

Montana State Invitational

Utah Cross Country Ties for First at Montana State Invite

9/16/2017 2:28 PM | Cross Country

Women Team Results Finish Lists

Amanda Gehrich leads Utah Cross Country at Montana State Invite

BOZEMAN, Mont. – The Utah women's cross country team tied for first place with meet host Montana State at the Bozeman Running Invite on Saturday morning. Utah had five runners place in the top 15 at the Bridger Creek Golf Course to help lead the Utes to a share of the title.

It is the third year in a row that the Utes have either won or tied for the win at this meet.

"We certainly would've liked to have won that meet outright but we also know that we held out a couple of kids," Utah head coach Kyle Kepler said. "I thought we ran well early, stayed in our groups, really had a great team mentality and just ran a really great team race."

Of those top 15 finishers, sophomore Amanda Gehrich, in her first competitive meet of the year, led the Utes finishing in second place overall with a time of 17:19.39. Finishing in fifth behind Gehrich, and also making her first competitive appearance of the year, was sophomore Poppy Tank who finished in a time of 17:24.36. Following behind Gehrich and Tank was senior Hannah McInturff who was also competing in her first meet of the season. McInturff finished the three-mile race in a time of 17:39.37 which was good for a ninth-place finish.

Rounding out the top five scorers for Utah was senior Jessica Sams and true freshman Aubrey Argyle. Sams finished in 12^th place with a time of 17:47.40 and Argyle finished in 14^th place with a time of 17:52.83.

Senior Sadie Wassum finished in 16^th with a time of 17:58.41, junior Caitlin Faust placed 18^th in a time of 18:06.12, senior Dakota Grossman placed 22^nd in a time of 18:10.90, and junior Jade Mulvey finished 27^th with a time of 18:16.64.

Placing behind Utah (42 points) and Montana State in the team results was Idaho State (80) in third, Montana (91) in fourth, Northern Colorado (129) in fifth, and North Dakota (159) in sixth.

"We need to finish better, I was not very pleased with the way we finished over the last 300 meters of the course," coach Kepler said. "I want to see more there, we have to have more, we have to finish better, gain more places or not give up places and I don't think we did that as well as we could."

Also running for the Utes was junior Hannah Allred (30^th, 18:19.86), freshman Bella Williams (31^st, 18:24.10), senior Shaylen Crook (35^th, 18:36.23), freshman Melissa Taggart (36^th, 18:37.83), sophomore Anna Busatto (37^th, 18:40.32), freshman Astrid Lindgren (38^th, 18:44.03), sophomore Nicole Griffiths (41^st, 18:51.49), freshman Natalie Platil (44^th, 18:57.23), junior Megan Spehar (48^th, 19:08.01), and freshman Emma Earl (52^nd, 19:23.06).

The Utes will be back in action on Thursday, Sept. 28, at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Indiana.

"The next step is a huge one, Notre Dame will be a huge meet and we've got to be ready to step up and run better than this, run a tighter group and not get so separated at the end of the race," coach Kepler said.