SALT LAKE CITY - Sophomore Maggie Zwahlen led the women's team and junior Geofrey Kemboi paced the men's team for Utah Valley University cross country on Friday morning at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships at the Rose Park Golf Course in Salt Lake City. 
 
Zwahlen was close behind senior Savannah Neuberger for most of the race but pushed at the end to take first for the Wolverine women by placing 41st out of 129 competitors with a 6K time of 21:08.8. Kemboi was in a similar situation with senior Kevin Lynch, but pulled through mid-race to lead the men's squad and finished in 33rd place out of 129 competitors with a 10K time of 31:32.2.
 
In the team score, both teams saw a big improvement from last year with the women's team posting a 13th-place finish out of 19 teams in arguably the toughest region in the nation with a total of 334 points, while the men tied a program record by posting a seventh-place finish out of 19 teams with a total of 250 points. 
 
"For the first time in a long while we put our nose out there and we let the race take us," head UVU coach Scott Houle said after the regional meet concluded. "We went out there, we had a plan, and the runners executed that to a tee. As a team we did great, individually we did really well too."
 
The senior Neuberger ran the final race of her college career on Friday. Neuberger paced the women's squad for most of the 6K race, but fell just short at the end with second-place honors for the Wolverine women by placing 45th overall with a time of 21:10.4. Sophomore Maddie Bench Empey came in third for UVU with a time of 21:55.4 (in 80th place), sophomore Skye Jeppson 83rd (22.01.0), Mazzie Melaney 22:03.4 (85th), freshman Kate Richardson 22:52.4 (110th), and sophomore Taylor Viertel 23:02.8 (118th).
 
"On the women's side, Savannah ran the final race of her career. Maggie will be a junior and is starting to come into her own. Mazzie is starting to learn how to race. Individually they ran really well and I'm proud of our team's efforts," said Houle. 
 
For the men's squad, sophomore Hawk Call came in second for UVU by posting a stellar 36th-place finish with a time of 31:36.0. Coming in third for the Wolverines was the two-time WAC Men's Athlete of the Year senior Kevin Lynch, who finished his final race of his career by placing 53rd overall and a time of 31:59.5. 
 
Lynch and Kemboi ran right with the top of the pack in the stacked region for the majority of the race, but Kemboi and Call ended up passing Lynch late in the contest to lead the men's squad. 
 
"Kevin had a plan and was following it, but unfortunately his body didn't allow him to do it today. In his career, there hasn't been a better ambassador for UVU in anything to do with Utah Valley University," Houle added. "Kevin has been a leader for us in the classroom, he's in his master's program, and fought to get a sixth year this season. He's definitely what a Wolverine really exemplifies."
 
Also contributing to the men's success was sophomore Jared Gonzalez-Perez by placing 59th with a time of 32:06.4, sophomore Britain Reynolds 32:39.9 (69th), freshman Daniel Bausch 33:29.5 (97th), and junior Lamek Keditukei 33:38.0 (101st).
 
"On the men's side, Geofrey has always been there for us but this is the first time that he stepped up and took that mantel that he needed to. Hawk has been our number one here and there and he has shown that he is someone we can count on. Our biggest race was today was Jared. He didn't shock us, but we didn't know if he was ready for that and he did that, added Houle."
 
Top-ranked BYU won the women's NCAA Mountain Region Championship with 70 total points. Fourth-ranked New Mexico came in second with 83 total points. Coming in third was No.6 Air Force (107), No 3. Colorado (113), and the host No. 2 University of Utah came in fifth overall with 116 points. By taking 13th, the Wolverine women placed ahead of Texas Tech of the Big 12 Conference (340), Montana State (365), Montana (402), WAC foe New Mexico State (405), Idaho State (492), and Nevada (541). 
 
The top-ranked NAU won the men's race with 21 total points, while No. 3 ranked Colorado came in second with 53 points. Ranked second in the region, BYU came in third with 56 points, No. 4 Utah State came in fourth (106), No. 8. Weber State came in fifth (217). By coming in seventh overall, UVU finished ahead of in-state foe Southern Utah (252), Air Force (259), Montana State (279), Colorado State (305), New Mexico (329), UTEP (347), Idaho State (399), WAC foe New Mexico State (407), Texas Tech (413), Northern Colorado (426), Nevada (573), and Montana (576).
 
The Utah Valley University men's and women's teams end the 2019 season after a successful season. The men's won their fifth WAC Championship in the last seven years, with Lynch winning the WAC Men's Cross Country Championship for the second year in a row. The women also had a strong season by earning runner-up honors at the 2019 WAC Championship.
 

Geofrey Kemboi

Hawk Call

Savannah Neuberger