No. 9 Utah Cross Country Ready for NCAA Mountain Region Championships on Friday

Friday, November 15

Salt Lake City, Utah

11 AM

University of Utah

NCAA Mountain Region Championships

2019 XC NCAA Mountain Region Championship

No. 9 Utah Cross Country Ready for NCAA Mountain Region Championships on Friday

11/13/2019 8:56 AM | Cross Country

Meet Central Page

The Utes host their first region championship since the 2010 season.

No. 9 Utah Cross Country To Host 2019 NCAA Mountain Region Championships

Date: Friday, November 15, 2019
Location: Rose Park Golf Course | Salt Lake City, Utah
Host: University of Utah
Time: 11:00 a.m. (MT)
Utah Media Guide: 2019 Cross Country Media Guide (PDF)
Cross Country Statistics: 2019 Season Statistics (PDF)

Starting Line
The No. 9-ranked Utah cross country team will host the 2019 NCAA Regional Championships Friday, Nov. 15, at the Rose Park Golf Course in Salt Lake City. The meet will feature a women's 6k race and a men's 10k race with the women's 6k slated to begin at 11 a.m. (MT) followed by the men's 10k at noon. Following both races, there will be a recognition ceremony for those athletes that have earned all-region honors beginning at approximately 1 p.m. (MT). This marks the second time Utah will host the NCAA regional meet since the 2010 season.

Competing in one of the toughest regions, Utah will go up against five nationally ranked teams that include rival #3 BYU, Pac-12 foe #8 Colorado and #10 New Mexico - who took home the regional championships last year. Utah will enter the meet ranked second in the region, right behind BYU, and ties the program record with the second-place ranking that was set earlier in the season.

Utah Runners
Scarlet Dale
Poppy Tank
Bella Williams
Cara Woolnough
Sarah Feeny
Trina Moreno
Ellie Lundgreen

Ranked Mountain Region Teams
#3 BYU
#8 Colorado
#9 Utah
#10 New Mexico
#15 Air Force
#16 Northern Arizona

In the Rankings
According to the latest USTFCCCA national coaches' poll, the Utes jumped seven spots to come in ranked No. 9 in the nation after completing a historic race at the Pac-12 Championships earning their highest finish of third-place in program history. This marks the fourth-consecutive week and sixth overall the Utes have been in the national rankings.

In the Mountain Region, the Utes climbed back into second and continue to look up at BYU - who hasn't dropped out of first the entire season. The highly competitive Mountain Region contains six close-knit teams, including Utah, that rank in the top-16 of the nation in No. 3 BYU, No. 8 Colorado, No. 10 New Mexico, No. 15 Air Force and No. 16 Northern Arizona.

Fresh Legs
With two weeks to prepare, Utah's runners will be primed and ready for a big day at the region championships. Only competing in two races this season, Dale looks to continue her trend of recording a new PR as she has done in both of her outings.

Tank, Williams, Feeny and Woolnough enter this week competing in their fourth-meet of the year as all four have seen action in Utah's top-tier meets this season. Moreno will be running in her fifth race while Lundgreen will continue her freshman campaign running in her sixth race of the season.

Last Time Out
The Utes competed at the Pac-12 Championships in Monmouth, Ore., where they had a huge day finishing with three runners in the top-10 to secure their highest finish in program history with a third-place finish. The trio of Tank, Williams and Feeny led Utah finishing in sixth, seventh and 10th-place to help the Utes total 86 points and propelled them into third, which nudged out previous region champion No. 8 Colorado by three points.

Woolnough and Moreno completed the scoring runners, finishing in 27th and 38th with Dale, Lundgreen and Emma Christensen rounding things out for the Utes placing 49th, 51st and 55th, respectively. In a field of 111, Utah finished all 10 runners in half of the field, an impressive feat considering the level of competition in the Pac-12.

Race favorite Standord won the conference championship in dominant fashion sweeping the podium, totaling 27 points while No. 4 Washington took second with 55 points. No. 19 Oregon rounded out the top-5 teams with 115 points.

In the Classroom
The Utah cross country program strives for excellence in both athletics and academics and continues to get it done in the classroom. In the fall of 2018, the cross country team was one of seven teams at Utah that finished with cumulative GPA above a 3.5.

Last season, the Utes had nine student-athletes named to the Pac-12 All-Academic team with four of them being named to the first and second team and five being honorable mentions. Sophomore Cara Woolnough earned first-team honors while senior Anna Busatto and juniors Astrid Lindgren and Natalie Platil were tabbed second-team members. Aubrey Argyle, Emma Christensen, Sarah Feeny, Sarah Newton and former Ute Sadie Wassum were named honorable mention.

This marked the second Pac-12 All-Academic honor Feeny has received (2015) and the first time Woolnough, Busatto, Lindgren, Platil, Argyle, Christensen and Newton were awarded cross country all-academic honors in their careers.

Up Next
Concluding the Mountain Region Championships, the Utes will have to wait as the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Committee will announce the automatic teams, at large teams and individual men and women qualifiers to the 2019 DI cross country championships on Saturday, Nov. 16. The selection show can be seen on NCAA.com and will begin at 3 p.m. (MT).

The 2019 NCAA cross country championships will take place in Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday, Nov. 23, at Indiana State's LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.

Fans can follow the Utah cross country program on Twitter (@Utah_trackfield), Facebook (UtahTrackXC) and on Instagram (@UtahTrackXC).

Podcast
Click below to listen to head coach Kyle Kepler in his weekly cross country podcast. In this edition, coach Kepler gives a recap of the historic day at the Pac-12 Championships along with a preview of the 2019 NCAA Mountain Region Championships.