#20 Utah Cross Country Finishes Fourth at NCAA Mountain Region Championship

Friday, November 11

Logan, Utah

All Day

University of Utah

NCAA Regional Championships

#20 Utah Cross Country Finishes Fourth at NCAA Mountain Region Championship

11/11/2016 1:50 PM | Cross Country

Mountain Region Championship Results (PDF)

Hannah McInturff, Grayson Murphy and Poppy Tank earn all-region honors.

LOGAN, Utah – Led by top-20 performances by juniors Hannah McInturff and Grayson Murphy, the No. 20-ranked Utah women's cross country team placed fourth at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships on Friday in Logan, Utah.

The Utes will now wait for a possible at-large bid to the NCAA Championships. The NCAA Championships will be held in Terre Haute, Ind. The national meet, hosted by Indiana State, will be next Saturday, Nov. 19.

Utah had 136 points on the day to finish fourth. The nation's No. 1-overall ranked team, Colorado took home the region championship finishing with 35 team points. No. 6 New Mexico followed behind Colorado to finish in second place with 109 team points. Coming in third place ahead of Utah was No. 29 Air Force with 111 team points, while No. 18 BYU placed in fifth behind the Utes with 146 team points to round out the top-five teams.

"It wasn't easy finishing in fourth place behind a very much improved Air Force squad, the defending national champions New Mexico and the No. 1-ranked team in the country Colorado finishing first," head coach Kyle Kepler said. "I thought our kids were very resilient and persevered. We were down pretty early in the race and didn't open very well, but we fought back and ran the back half of that course like crazy and passed a ton of people at the end."

"I am excited for this group. They have worked really hard and it has been someone different leading us almost every race. That is a lot of fun when you have a team where it is interchangeable," Kepler stated.

McInturff and Murphy crossed the finish line back-to-back, placing 17^th and 18^th. McInturff ran the six-kilometer race in a time of 20:32.5 and Murphy finished the race in a time of 20:33.6. Recording a top-25 performance, Poppy Tank finished in 25^th place for the Utes with a time of 20:55.1. With their strong performances, McInturff, Murphy, and Tank notched all-region honors.

"Our kids are just really resilient. It's someone different stepping up every time. Hannah McInturff came up big for us today and really took charge and got us out there. Grayson Murphy ran the back half of the course brilliantly and Poppy Tank, true freshman, earned all-region in her first time around. She got that 25-place spot right at the end of the race, making the pass with about 200 yards to go and got it," Kepler said.

Rounding out Utah's team score for the meet were freshman Amanda Gehrich and senior Giselle Slotboom. Gehrich finished in 32^nd place in a time of 21:09.7. Slotboom ran a time of 21:25.8 to earn a 44^th-place finish.

"Amanda was less than 100-percent, a little bit under the weather, but she came through and did enough for us, holding down a spot and passing a bunch of people over the last mile or so," Kepler said. "Giselle Slotboom didn't have her best race, but passed some people in the end to help us secure fourth place."

Freshman Ashley Licata came in 70^thwith a time of 22:00.0, while senior Dana Snell finished 74^th with a time of 22:06.2 to round out Utah runners who competed Friday morning.

"Ashley and Dana followed their race plan and ran together the whole way and did everything they could to be there if we needed them to score," Kepler said.