2023-11-09 19:56:40
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SALT LAKE CITY – The 20th-ranked Utah cross country team will toe the line this Friday, Nov. 10, at 9 a.m. (MT) once morest some of the nation’s best programs at the NCAA Mountain Regionals held in Lubbock, Texas, on the Chaparral Ridge Cross Country Course. This is the first time the mountain regionals have ever been held in the LBK.
NCAA MOUNTAIN REGIONALS (Meet Central)
HOST: Texas Tech
DATE: Friday, November 10
WHERE: Chaparral Ridge Cross Country Course (Course Map)
WHEN: 9 a.m. (MT) / 10 a.m. (CT) local
MTN REGIONAL HISTORY:
LIVE RESULTS:
PARTICIPANTS: Air Force, #3 BYU, #13 Colorado, #27 Colorado State, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State, #1 NAU, Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Northern Colorado, Southern Utah, Texas Tech, #20 UtahUtah State, #22 Utah Valley, Weber State, Wyoming
UTAH PARTICIPANTS: McKaylie Caesar, Morgan Jensen, Ellie Lundgreen, Kyla Martin, Clara Mayfield, Katarzyna Nowakowska, Anna Peters, Karli Branch (alto)
THE LINE UP
Head coach Kyle Kepler will send seven runners to compete in arguably the toughest region in the country this Friday with good mix of veterans and newcomers. Of the seven, McKaylie Caesar, Morgan Jensen, Ellie Lundgreen and Clara Mayfield come into the meet with experience in the regional meet. Meanwhile, the freshmen crew of Kyla Martin, Katarzyna Nowakowska and Anna Peters will be making their first appearane at a regional race.
Mayfield has the best finish among those with experience at the regionals posting runner-up honors the last two seasons at the Division III level during her illustrious career at Carleton College. Between Caesar, Jensen and Lundgreen, Jensen has had the best finish at the Division I level, placing 33rd-overall last season in Albuquerque. Caesar’s best finish at the west regionals came last season as well when she crossed in 48th-place. Lundgreen’s lone run at the regionals came in 2019 when she placed 61st.
STACKED REGIONAL
Of the 19 teams competing in the mountain regional, six are ranked in the USTFCCCA Top-30 Poll. The six ranked teams in the mountain regional ties with the west for the most ranked teams among the nine regions. The six ranked teams lining up at Chaparral Ridge Cross Country Course include top-ranked NAU, #3 BYU, #13 Colorado, #20 Utah, #22 Utah Valley and #27 Colorado State. Of those six, everyone but Utah claimed their respective conference championships a couple weeks back. Those five champions hailed from the Pac-12, Big Sky, Mountain West, WAC and WCC.
STRONG FINISHES
Head coach Kyle Kepler has done a great job training his team to succeed late in the year, finishing within the top-5 seven times in the last 10 years. Of those seven finishes within the top-5, the women of Utah have secured berths to the NCAA Championships on five different occasion – including the program’s first-ever appearance in 2015 and the program’s best finish last season (2022) in 12th.
LAST TIME OUT
The Women of Utah took fifth at this year’s final Pac-12 Championships and was led by McKaylie Caesar’s (19:36.0) ninth-place finish – which earned her Second-Team All-Pac-12 accolades. Freshman Katarzyna Nowakowska (19:50.4) had a strong finish to secure 15th place and just missed out on all-conference honors. Fellow freshman Anna Peters (19:51.4) was right behind her for 16th. Morgan Jensen (19:55.9) wasn’t far off from her teammates, crossing the finishing in 20th overall while Clara Mayfield (20:44.4) rounded out the top-five scoring in 46th. Freshman Kyla Martin checked in shortly following in 49th (20:46.6) while Ellie Lundgreen, Karli Branch and Maddie Reed all finished right behind one another from 60-62nd with Caroline Fischer closing things out.
UP NEXT
Should the Women of Utah not earn an automatic bid (top-2), the Utes will find out on Saturday, Nov. 11, at 3 p.m. (MT) / 5 p.m. (ET) if they officially qualified for the NCAA Championships during the Selection Show live-stream on NCAA.com.
For the latest news and information on the Utah cross country and track & field programs, fans can stay connected online at www.UtahUtes.com and on social media by following on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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