Bobcats Set to Face Strong Field at Mountain Regional

Friday, November 11

Logan, UT

12 p.m.

Montana State University

NCAA Mountain Region Championship

11/9/2016 9:52:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Regional Central Live Results

Montana State cross country races in Logan Friday in competitive meet versus nation's best

By: Andrew Pedersen

The Montana State men's and women's cross country teams head to Logan, Utah, for the NCAA Mountain Regional beginning Friday, Nov. 11. The Bobcats' women's squad opens up competition in the six-kilometer race at 11 a.m. MDT, with the men's 10K race following at 12 p.m.

Competition at the Mountain Region Cross Country Championships is stacked with some of the best teams in the nation.

The top three teams in the latest USTFCCCA Men's Top-30 Poll – Northern Arizona, Colorado and BYU – will participate in the Mountain Regional. Of the 18 schools in action on the men's side, six are ranked with Air Force receiving the most votes among teams outside the Top-30 poll.

The women's race looks to be just as competitive with first-ranked Colorado leading a 21-team field. New Mexico, BYU, Utah and Air Force are also featured in the Women's Top-30 Poll.

"We need to approach the race looking at our performances based on our effort level and seeing improvement," Montana State head coach Lyle Weese said. "There are teams on both (the men's and women's) sides that are some of the best teams in the country. Some things like getting in the top half of our region as an individual is pretty difficult, almost every team in the Mountain Region is really good.

"If we had some individuals do that, that would be pretty impressive. Hopefully they will be battling there for a top 25 spot individually."

The top two placing teams in each region earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Nov. 19. Thirteen at-large teams will be selected among those that did not qualify automatically, with several expected to come from the Mountain Regional. Individually, the top four runners to place from a team at each region that does not qualify for the NCAA Championships can advance to the national meet. However, a runner must finish in the top 25 of his or her region's individual standings to do so.

Keeping up With the Championships
The 2016 NCAA Mountain Regional races will have live results available. Information regarding the Cross Country Championships can be found on the Mountain Region Championship page and the USTFCCCA Championship Central site.

Season at a Glance
Both MSU teams competed in three meets prior to heading to the Big Sky Conference Championships.

At the Big Sky meet on Oct. 28, sophomores Alyssa Snyder and Tyler Mogan led the MSU women's and men's teams, respectively. Snyder earned a 15th-place finish and Mogan took 17th, the fourth time out of four meets the two have had the highest finish among Bobcat runners.

Senior Zachary Kughn, sophomore Anthony Schmalz, freshman Isaac Barville and sophomore Noah Kirkland all scored for the MSU men's team. Junior Louisa Serpe, sophomore Layne Oliver, senior Christie Schiel and freshman Madison Liechty made up the Bobcats' top five runners on the women's side.

With the possible last meet of the season on the horizon for the Bobcats, the Mountain Regional looks to be another step for the MSU runners in their development.

"It's another building block," Weese said. "Our men's team has seen good progress the whole season. The women's team has seen progress, sometimes it's been a little up and down, but overall improvement that we've seen in the workouts with a team that has more experience in the mid-distance events. We just want to keep trying to progress and improve through the meet."

Last Season's Mountain Regional
The Bobcats finished 12th and 14th overall in the men's and women's regionals, respectively, at the 2015 Mountain Regional.

Then-freshman Alyssa Snyder led the way for the women's team with a 51st-place finish, while sophomore Louisa Serpe took second on the team by finishing 69th overall. MSU's men's runner Mogan also competed in last year's meet and took 62nd overall.

Past Regional History
The last time the Montana State men's team finished in the top 10 of the Mountain Regional was a ninth-place showing in 2013. The Bobcats' highest finish in the past 20 years at the regional stage came in 2002 when MSU took fifth at the meet. Current MSU coach Lyle Weese placed fourth individually to lead the Bobcats, while Casey Jermyn finished 10th. It's the lone year the Bobcats' men's team has qualified for the NCAA Championships.

The MSU women's squad has placed among the top 10 women's team's at the Mountain Regional on several occasions in recent history. The Bobcats took seventh in 2013 and 10th in 2014 in the team standings, with Heather Demorest the last individual to place in the top 10 with an eighth-place finish in 2013. MSU earned back-to-back third-place finishes in 1994 and 1995, with the latter squad qualifying for the lone NCAA Division I Championships appearance in school history.