Mogan, Snyder Pace Bobcats at Big Sky Conference Championships

Friday, October 28

Moscow, ID

12 p.m.

Montana State University

Big Sky Conference Championship

Alyssa Snyder

Photo by: Spencer Farrin

Mogan, Snyder Pace Bobcats at Big Sky Conference Championships

10/28/2016 2:51:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Men's Results Results Women's Results

Two Bobcats finish in the top 20 among individuals at the Big Sky Conference meet in Moscow

By: Andrew Pedersen

MOSCOW, Idaho – Sophomores Tyler Mogan and Alyssa Snyder earned top-20 finishes to lead the Montana State men's and women's cross country teams to sixth and seventh place showings, respectively, at the Big Sky Championships on the University of Idaho Golf Course Friday, Oct. 28.

The men's eight-kilometer championship race began the day with MSU's Mogan crossing the finish line first for the Bobcats in 17th place with a time of 25 minutes, 20.6 seconds. His finish was an improvement by 24 spots from a year ago when Mogan took 41st at the Big Sky meet in Cedar City.

Senior Zachary Kughn finished 27th overall by crossing the line at 25:50.3, his second time taking second in the MSU lineup this fall. Sophomore Anthony Schmalz took third in the Bobcat lineup for the second consecutive meet and finished 37th overall in a time of 26:09.9. Freshman Isaac Barville completed his first Big Sky meet by placing 46th (26:24.4) and sophomore Noah Kirkland rounded out MSU's scoring lineup by finishing 49th (26:31.0).

Also competing for the Bobcat men's squad was senior Adam Wollant who finished 54th (26:39.5), senior Shawn Peden (26:45.5) – whose 57th place showing was 27 spots higher than a year ago – and freshman Cameron Carroll (26:53.3) who took 60th.

Northern Arizona won the men's conference championship with a perfect score of 15, the first time that has happened at the Big Sky meet in 28 years. The Lumberjacks eventually had their top six finishers cross the line first. Southern Utah took runner-up with 48 points and was followed by Weber State (92), Idaho State (174) and Idaho (174), with MSU edged out by the two Potato State universities with 176 points.

"The scoring was really close with a difference of just three points between sixth place and fourth place," Montana State head coach Lyle Weese said. "Finishes aside, the effort level from both teams, but especially the guys was incredible. They went out there and ran their hearts out and didn't leave anything out there."

MSU's Snyder improved on her 23rd-place showing a year ago at the Women's Big Sky Conference Championship – by eight spots – by crossing the 5K finish line in 18:10.1. She was followed by junior Louisa Serpe who completed a mark of 18:41.3 for 31st, a 41-place improvement from her finish a year ago.

Sophomore Layne Oliver took 40th in a time of 18:50.6, senior Christie Schiel took 46th in her first appearance of 2016 by coming in at 19:00.7 and freshman Madison Liechty came in 47th with a time of 19:06.7 to round out the Bobcats' scoring lineup.

Also competing for the MSU women's squad was sophomore Kendra Larson (19:19.0), sophomore Kelsi Lasota (19.29.5) and freshman Kimberly Parsell (20:10.6).

"I thought the women's team also competed really well," Weese said. "I'm happy with how the team fought. A couple of the girls had injuries come up this week which was really bad timing and I think it had a pretty big impact on our performance. Regardless of if they were at their very best physically, they were at their best mentally and put in a great effort."

The Lumberjacks swept the men's and women's titles by the latter taking the second championship with 48 points ahead of Weber State (60). Southern Utah took third with 99 points while Idaho (115), Montana (136) and Eastern Washington (170) outdistanced the Bobcats' 179 total.

The Montana State men's and women's cross country teams travel to Logan, Utah, next for the NCAA Mountain Region Championship on Nov. 11 for a chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships.