Women Upset Two at NCAA Mountain Region, Finish Fourth

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Oct 3

Women 7:50am / Men 9:30am

Cross Country

at Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite

Oct 10

Men 9:00 a.m. / Women 9:45 a.m.

Cross Country

at UCCS XC Open

Oct 18

TBA

Cross Country

at Pre-National Invite

Oct 31

TBA

Cross Country

at Mountain West Championships

Nov 14

TBA

Cross Country

vs NCAA Mountain Region Championships

PROVO, Utah – Determined to prove that its slip to third place in the Mountain West Championships was a fluke, the Colorado State women's cross country team returned to the role of underdog bully Friday morning with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Mountain Regionals, besting two higher-ranked teams in the process.

Up until the conference championships a week and a half ago in which an unranked Utah State outfooted the Rams for second place, the Rams had not lost to an inferior opponent and were knocking off higher-ranked teams along the way. In the two biggest meets of the year, the Bill Dellinger Invite and Nuttycombe Invite, the Rams bested a combined 10 teams that occupied a higher spot in USTFCCCA's national poll. Two more were added to that list Friday at the Timpanogos Golf Club as the No. 19-ranked Rams finished in fourth just ahead of seventh-ranked Utah and No. 18 Northern Arizona. In front of CSU was the gauntlet of region champion No. 2 New Mexico, then No. 3 Colorado, and No. 4 BYU, respectively.

The fourth-best finish for the Rams is the best since 2007 when CSU won the event. Since then, CSU's best results were three fifth place showings, which came from 2010-13. The performance all but guarantees that the Rams will hear their name get called in Saturday's NCAA Selection Show for an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships.

The top-2 teams per gender in each region automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships, while the other teams will be at-large selections during an NCAA Selection Show on Saturday at 5 pm ET. In total 31 teams make the national meet and with nine regions, that leaves 13 at-large bids to give away. Then, after teams have been determined, 40 additional individuals per gender are selected to compete based on finish at their respective regional championships (38 are automatic selections; two are at-large).

"The women ran their best race of the year," head coach Art Siemers said. "That is what we aim to do – run the best in the final race. In this case, we have another one coming though in the national meet. The women are a really good team. We didn't run up to our potential at conference, which part of it is on us as coaches by putting too much pressure on them to run with New Mexico, and we uncharacteristically faded in the race. We went into this meet a lot looser and ran as relaxed as we could since we know we are a good team. We are tapering almost perfect right now. We rested a little bit more than we did before conference and with our cycle of training, our ladies are feeling really good."

A tight five-runner pack split of 21.8 seconds carried the women to their impressive results in the 6,000-meter race. Finishing in the top-25 and earning All-Regional honors were redshirt-sophomore Annabel Stafford and seniors Lily Tomasula-Martin and Lauren Offerman. Tomasula-Martin placed 16^th place with a time of 20:49.3 with Offerman and Stafford in tow in 19^th and 22^nd, respectively, – all within a span of 1.5 seconds. Claudia Burgess (28^th, 21:02.2) and Ashlyn Hillyard (31^st, 21.11.1) concluded the Rams' scoring.

The CSU men will conclude its season in Provo with the ninth-place finish in the 10K race. The first four scorers ran in a tight pack with redshirt junior Mason Brown leading the way with a time of 30:53.4 for 36^th place. Tanner Norman (39^th), Jacob Brueckman (40^th) and Brock Dykema (42^nd) followed all within the next 15 seconds. The capper on the scoring didn't come until 59^th when Dawson Besst crossed with a time of 31:40.3.

ART'S THOUGHTS
Head Coach Art Siemers
On the All-Region winners…
"Lily and Lauren have been super consistent as our No. 1 and No. 2 runners all year. We knew going into this race that they were going to lead our team well. I am really proud of Annabel. She was our 10^th runner at conference and at her best, she is not our 10^th runner. We needed her to be on her on her best to give us a chance a qualifying for nationals and she responded very well. She's new to the sport since she ran in high school at a military base in Japan not getting a lot of experience. She walked on to our program last year and then COVID happened, so she is improving a lot and bringing the team to a higher level in doing so."

On the men…
"The men's team is a resilient bunch. They had a great three quarters of a season, but we didn't finish strong. I believe they are going to learn from this and motivate themselves into the track season like they did last year."

TEAM RESULTS (Full Results available http://csura.ms/3onLQtB )
Women's 6K Race (Top-10)
1. #2 New Mexico, 62
2. #3 Colorado, 83
3. #4 BYU, 107
4. #19 Colorado State, 116
5. #7 Utah, 146
6. #18 Northern Arizona, 168
7. #22 Utah State, 199
8. #RV Weber State, 212
9. Utah Valley, 217
10. Air Force, 260

Men's 10K Race (Top-10)
1. #8 BYU, 42
2. #1 NAU, 57
3. #2 Colorado, 83
4. #11 Air Force, 130
5. #26 Southern Utah, 152
6. Weber State, 155
7. #RV Montana State, 177
8. #21 Utah State, 177
9. #22 Colorado State, 216
10. Utah Valley, 301

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
Women's 6K Race
16. Lily Tomasula-Martin, 20:49.3
20. Lauren Offerman, 20:50.3
22. Annabel Stafford, 20:50.8
28. Claudia Burgess, 21:02.2
31. Ashlyn Hillyard, 21:11.1
38. Ivy Gonzales, 21:22.1
42. Emily Chaston, 21:24.4

Men's 10K Championship Race
36. Mason Brown, 30:53.4
39. Tanner Norman, 31:00.2
40. Jacob Brueckman, 31:00.8
42. Brock Dykema, 31:08.1
59. Dawson Besst, 31:40.3
74. Calvin Banta, 32:09.6
84. Thomas Chaston, 32:26.3

For More on Colorado State Track & Field and Cross Country follow: Twitter – CSUTrackFieldXC | Instagram – csutrackfieldXC | Facebook – Colorado State Track & Field/Cross Country

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