Cross Country Men Come Up Short in Indiana
Chris Syme
10/17/2009 8:54:59 AM
For Montana State head men's cross country coach Dale Kennedy ,Saturday's pre-national meet in Terra Haute, Indiana was not what he had hoped for.
"The door really closed on us to go to the nationals in November," Kennedy said. "We didn't perform strong as a team and I really don't know what happened. But individually, Nick Atwood and Patrick Casey ran well."
Atwood, a junior, led the 'Cats placing 48th in the blue race with a time of 24:41.7, his best time of the season. Sophmore Casey placed 73rd with a time of 24:53.5, a half-second faster than his winning time at the Fleet Feet Invite in September.
"Carl Nysteun ran 30 seconds faster than he did two years ago here at this course," Kennedy said.
The Bobcats were hoping to have five runners inside the top 80-90 runners for a legitimate shot at garnering an at-large bid to the NCAA national championships.
"We really have to come back now and regroup," Kennedy said. "The Big Sky Conference meet is ahead of us now and we have a chance to possibly finish higher than we have for a long time, so we are going to focus on that meet now. Now it's about where we go from here."
MSU's women ran in the non-seeded open race at the meet. Heather Haug paced the team placing 16th with a time of 22:53.6. Kala Jauquet placed 43rd with a time of 23:21.8. Rebecca Sorenson placed 58th at 23:45.2.
Montana State Men:
Place Name School Time
48 Nick Atwood Montana State 24:41
73 Patrick Casey Montana State 24:53.5
98 Matthew Atkinson-Adam Montana State 25:09.3
156 Carl Nystuen Montana State 25:50.7
162 Tyler Noland Montana State 25:53.8
188 Dan Jackson Montana State 26:09.0
208 Graydon Curry Montana State 26:38.3