NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The Utah Valley University women's cross country team won the Women's Blue Race at the Silver State Collegiate Cross Country Challenge on Monday morning at Craig Ranch Regional Park in North Las Vegas with a total of 36 points.
The Wolverine women finished ahead of a trio of Mountain West opponents in the 6k race—in Boise State (42 points), Air Force (54), San Diego State (88)—as well as WAC foe Grand Canyon (141) on their way to winning the race.
Four UVU women finished in the top-10 on their way to helping the Wolverines win the race led by
Maddie Bench Empey for the second time on the season, who posted a fourth-place finish with a time of 20:58.7.
Mazzie Melaney Preston and
Maggie Zwahlen finished right behind her by taking fifth and sixth, respectively, with times of 21:02.0 and 21:20.4, while
Hannah Branch rounded out the top-10 for UVU by claiming eighth place (21:30.6).
Skye Jeppson rounded out UVU scorers by coming in 13th (22:01.3).
"It was a good race for us with nice competition and weather for this time of year, and our women's team ran really well," head UVU coach
Scott Houle said. Maddie Empey again led our team, and Mazzie, Maggie and Hannah all followed with great races. It was nice to see us beat Air Force, who was ranked eighth nationally last year, so we are definitely headed in the right direction.
"
Geofrey Kemboi and
Britain Reynolds also ran well for our men's team, but we've got some room for improvement on the men's side. I have confidence that we'll get things corrected and have that taken care of in time for conference."
A handful of other distance runners also had strong performances for the Wolverine women on the day with
Zoe Hales taking 19th (22:18.3) in the five-team Blue Race, followed by
Elizabeth Wilcox in 20th (22:19.0),
Taylor Viertel in 22nd (22:21.3),
Kate Richardson in 23rd (22:23.8) and
Hailey Odekirk in 24th (22:28.3).
The UVU men's squad posted a third-place finish in the Men's 8k Blue Race with 66 total points. New Mexico won the race with 31 points, followed by GCU in second (46) and Boise State in fourth (71).
Geofrey Kemboi paced the men's squad by placing fourth overall with a time of 24:23.8, while
Britain Reynolds too finished in the top-10 by taking seventh (24:32.1).
Jackson Pratt and
Joshua Peters were next by placing 18th (25:12.1) and 19th (25:15.6), respectively, while
Talon Rodriguez placed 21st (25:30.2) and
Thomas Pickford 23rd (25:41).
The win for the women's squad marked their first victory since Oct. 19, 2019 when they won the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational.
The Wolverines will now return to Orem and will next compete in an indoor track & field meet at BYU this weekend (Feb. 4-6). UVU's next cross country meet will be Feb. 19 back in Las Vegas at the Battle Born Collegiate Cross Country Challenge.
