Wyoming men’s and women’s cross country teams swept the Montana State Invite this past Saturday in Bozeman, Mont.
Junior Amos Bowen won the men’s five-mile race while senior Holly Page led the way for the Cowgirls finishing second overall in the three-mile race. Both runners’ performances earned them Mountain West Cross Country Athlete of the week honors.
“The men gave another great effort today,” said head coach Bryan Berryhill. “The [women] controlled the race from start to finish.”
Bowen won the men’s race by five seconds with a time of 25:01. He ran a 5:00/M pace. It was his first individual crown of his career.
Placing fourth overall and second for the Cowboys with a time of 25:13 was Senior Aaron Derner.
Coming in third for Wyoming and sixth overall was Junior Dylan Morin who crossed with a time of 25:29.
Finishing fourth on the Cowboy team and ninth overall was Jonah Henry who clocked in at a time of 25:50.
Rounding the scorers and finishing fifth for the Cowboys was Junior Mike Seas who finished with a time of 26:08, which was good enough for twelfth place.
The Cowboy team finished with 32 points and as a team ran an average 25:32 pace. That was 15 points ahead of the second place team, the hosts, Montana State. Rounding out the top-three was the team of Utah State who finished with 50 points.
“We thought this was a meet we should win, but with that being said I liked the guys’ effort,” said Berryhill. “We have to get our split down from first to fifth down.”
Placing second overall, behind Bowen, was the senior out of Montana State, Michael Asay. Rounding out the top-three was Senior Eric Shellhorn of Utah State.
On the girls side Page finished second overall with a time of 17:08. She was twelve seconds behind the first place finisher. She ran at a clip of 3:26/M.
Right behind Page finishing third overall was Freshman Kerry White with time of 17:19.
Closely following White and finishing fourth overall was Junior Audra DeStefano crossing with a time of 17:23.
Finishing fourth for the Cowgirls and 10th overall with a time of 17:26 was Sophomore Ali Walker.
Rounding out the scorers for the Cowgirls was Sophomore Megan Brunette who crossed twelfth overall with a time of 17:40.
The Cowgirls won with a team score of 31 while running an average clip of 17:25. They defeated nationally ranked Utah (37th) who finished with a score of 33. Host Montana State rounded out the top-three with a score of 87.
“For the women to go into a meet like this and mentally believe they can beat a team like Utah is a huge step forward,” said Berryhill. “That is what it takes to get to the NCAA Championships.”
Finishing first overall in the women’s race was Utah’s Freshman Sarah Feeny who crossed with a time of 16:56.
The Wyoming cross country team will be back racing again at the Notre Dame Invite on Oct. 3.
