Montana State's men's cross country team is looking to open a door this weekend at the Mountain Region Meet in Albuquerque, New Mexico that is closing on them quickly.
Head coach Dale Kennedy's squad is running for a chance to qualify as an at-large team for the NCAA National Championships later in the month.
“I feel like the door is a lot tighter than I was hoping for at this point,” Kennedy said. “But, if we had five guys run great races, we could do it.”
Kennedy is referring to the slim chance that the Bobcats could qualify for the national meet as an at-large team by virtue of their performance on Saturday. They would need to beat several highly rated teams in order to be considered for the berth.
“We didn't run as well as we hoped for at the pre-national meet earlier this fall, so we really limited our chances. That was our only opportunity to run against those highly rated teams, and we fell short,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy feels that Northern Arizona's men, rated number four in the country, and the University of Colorado, rated fifth in the nation, have a pretty good lock on the two automatic bids to the national meet.
“After those two, we have to come in ahead of teams like New Mexico, Utah State, or BYU,” Kennedy said. “If we could get in there at third, we would have a good chance.”
Three Bobcats have run on the New Mexico course before; seniors Matt Adams and Graydon Curry and redshirt junior Nick Atwood. Atwood, who led the team at the Big Sky Conference meet, is coming off a bout with the flu.
When asked about his team's chances, Kennedy said, “We have no pressure on us, nothing to lose. A team like that can be dangerous.”
And dangerous is what the Bobcats will have to be because, according to Kennedy, they will probably have to place all their runners in the top 50 finishers to have a chance.
The Bobcat women will also run the race, which will be more of a statement about their ability to finish well, Kennedy said.
“The women need to finish better than they did last year,” Kennedy said. “Last year we finished last, and it is our goal in this meet to beat that.”
On Saturday, the men's race begins at 10:45 a.m. and the women run at 11:50 a.m.
