Montana State Cross Country closed out the 2011 season at the NCAA Mountain Regional Meet on Saturday. The Bobcat Men finished 13th overall with 345 points while the Women came in 15th with 377. (Men's Results | Women's Results)
Meet host, Brigham Young won the men's competition with 49 points. In the women's 6K, New Mexico and Colorado tied for the team title with 84 points each.
In the men's 10K, a distance the Bobcats hadn't competed in this season, Seth Grossman was the highest finisher for MSU, just two places out of all-region contention. The Kalispell native crossed the line in 27th with a time of 31:19.40. Grossman's time was just 1:10.10 behind the overall individual champion, Miles Batty, of BYU, who finished in 30:09.30.
Jacob Kirk was the next highest finisher in 65th place (32:29.50). Jake Turner (32:48.60), Forrest Jarvi (33:10.70) and Trevor Polson (33:30.40) came in 78th, 84th and 91st, respectively, to round out the Bobcat scoring.
Also competing were Seth Garbett who came in 98th in 33.53.20 and Matthew Tex in 112th in 35:33.60.
2011 Big Sky champion Northern Arizona came in third place as a team.
In the Women's 6K, Heather Haug led the way for the Bobcats finishing in 31st place with a time of 22:03.50. Her time was 1:28.30 behind meet champion, Risper Kimaiyo of Texas-El Paso who clocked in at 20:35.20.
Heather Demorest was MSU's second-highest finisher in 58th place with a time of 22:44.60. ReBecca Sorenson, in the final cross country meet of her collegiate career, placed 73rd with a time of 23:10.10. Lauren Kuennen took 92nd in 23:38.30 and Emily Garneau was 123rd with a time of 24:55.80 to complete MSU's scoring. Nicole Tester took 126th with a time of 25:08.40 in her first NCAA regional.
"We did miss some goals today, which was certainly frustrating," said head coach Dale Kennedy. "However, there was no lack of effort on the course today and we did take away some very valuable experience from the meet."
Weber State, who won the 2011 Big Sky Championship, placed third as a team.
