LUBBOCK, Texas Utah Valley's 22nd-ranked Women's Cross Country team made program history on Friday with a fifth-place finish—the program's best ever—at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships on Friday morning. The race was hosted by Texas Tech University and contested on the Chaparral Ridge XC Course.
The finish puts the team in a favorable position to receive its second straight at-large berth to the NCAA Championships. The finals will be held on Saturday, Nov. 18 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The NCAA Cross Country selection show goes live on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 5 p.m. ET/3 p.m. MT on NCAA.com.
"Everyone stepped up today. The girls went in there and went toe-to-toe with some of the biggest names in the country, showed how strong they are and that they belong in the top 20," said head coach
Scott Houle. "I love the grit they have and how they go out and compete. They're not afraid to push themselves and see what their limits are."
A season after having its first-ever individual champion at the Mountain Regional in All-American
Everlyn Kemboi, the Wolverines posted their best regional finish ever.
Morgan Nokes led the way for the 2023 WAC Champions, taking 12th place overall in the 6k with a time of 19:49.0. Nokes was 65th at the regional a season ago while competing for Utah State. All five scorers for UVU were in the top 40, and all seven Wolverines finished in the top 43 of the 20-team competition.
Ari Trimble was up next for Utah Valley, with her time of 19:58.2 putting her 17th overall after she finished 32nd as a freshman in 2022.
Abbie Fuhriman (20:25.9) landed in 31st,
Oakley Olson (20:34.2) took 36th, and
Lydia Beus (20:38.9) was 40th to round on the team scoring.
Anna Martin (20:41.2) and
Caila Odekirk (20:42.8) crossed the finish line right behind Beus to land in spots 42 and 43, respectively. Odekirk improved by 24 spots after finishing 66th last season.
No. 1 Northern Arizona won the team title with 39 points. BYU (59), Utah (120), Colorado (131), and Utah Valley (136) rounded out the top five. Of the 31 teams per gender to compete at next week's championships, 18 were decided by Friday's regionals with the remaining 13 determined by the selection committee.
The Utah Valley men finished 12th as a team and were led by
Mo Guled's 10k time of 30:26.4, which put him in 50th overall.
Abdulsalam Farah finished in 60th with a time of 30:35.8, followed by
Austin Hone (64th, 30:43.7),
Gilbert Olivas (77th, 31:11.8), and
Gio Ramirez (78th, 31:12.6) for the five to score points in the team standings.
Andrew Blackham (82nd, 31:18.9) and
Adam Bunker (107th, 32:15.6) rounded out the seven Wolverine men competing.
"We had a really good race from a couple of guys, despite Mo and Farah both having some muscles tighten. The good thing about this group is we return everyone and will just get stronger and find more success," Houle said.
No. 1 Northern Arizona (36) ran away with the men's team title, finishing in front of BYU (89). New Mexico (97), Air Force (112), and Montana State (135) rounded out the top five.
