PRINCETON, N.J. — Morgan Nokes took home her fourth individual meet title of the season to lead Utah Valley at the Princeton Fall Classic on Friday morning at the Meadows Cross Country Course in New Jersey.
Nokes paced a women's squad that took sixth place overall against a strong field, with four finishers among the top 50 runners. Behind Nokes, Elisabeth Ferrell (43rd), Artana Nice (48th), and Ari Trimble (50th) were the top Wolverine runners.
"Morgan started out in a pack, but with about two miles to go pulled away and ran incredibly strong and pulled away," said head coach Scott Houle. "Our other girls had a great start and were able to have a pretty good race and finish strong. They're starting to learn how to run in college, how fast it is and how fast you have to start and finish. They're starting to figure that out and round into a good team at a good time, heading into the WAC Championships.
Sila Kiplagat led the men's team to a fifth place finish, taking 21st overall. Kiplagat was in the top 10 for the majority of the race, but ran out of steam down the home stretch.
"I'm proud of the effort Sila's been putting in," said Houle. "This is only his third cross country race ever, he's a track athlete learning how to run cross country, so I'm proud of the effort he's putting in there, also being one of the youngest guys in the top groups of these races."
Wyatt Mortenson, Jayden Fitzgarrald, and Samuel Nelson overcame slow starts to work their way back into the top 50. Mortenson took 30th, while Fitzgarrald and Nelson came across simultaneously for 49th and 50th respectively.
"Our guys are doing a great job," said Houle. "We have some more room to grow, but the best thing is we have that room and we're capable of that growth. They ran the back half of the race really well, moving up from 16th at the halfway mark to 5th at the end. Excited to see what can happen in the next couple of weeks heading into the WAC Championships."
Utah Valley will have a week off before heading to Arlington, Texas for the WAC Championships, hosted by UT Arlington at the Harold Patterson Sports Center. The men will run first at 8 a.m. MT, followed by the women at 9. The women will look to take their third-straight WAC title, while the men will look for their first team title since 2019.
