Lasota Places Second to Highlight Bobcat Showing at Big Sky Cross Country Meet

Saturday, October 27

Sacramento, CA (Haggin Oaks GC)

11 a.m.

Montana State University

Big Sky Cross Country Championship

Photo by: Big Sky Conference

Lasota Places Second to Highlight Bobcat Showing at Big Sky Cross Country Meet

10/27/2018 1:34:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Results

Kelsi Lasota became just the third Bobcat on the women's side to finish as high as second at the Big Sky meet since 1994

By: Andrew Pedersen

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Kelsi Lasota earned all-conference honors for the second consecutive season by completing Montana State's best individual finish of runner-up at the 2018 Big Sky Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Oct. 27, at Haggin Oaks Golf Complex. Lasota paced the Bobcat women's squad to a sixth-place finish, while the Bobcat men's team claimed its best showing at the meet since 2013 by taking fourth.

Lasota was among the lead pack runners through the first split of the Women's 5-Kilometer race and moved into the top two by the 2.1-mile split. The senior's final time of 16 minutes, 42.2 seconds, was 12 seconds behind gold medalist Angie Nickerson of Southern Utah's mark, but was good for a silver medal.

Only three Bobcats have finished as high as second at the Big Sky meet since 1994. Lasota joins a group that includes Faith Harvel who placed second at the meet in Salt Lake City in 1994, as well as Heather Demorest who earned runner-up at the meet in Bozeman in 2013.

"She just had a great race," Montana State head coach Lyle Weese said. "She seemed pretty comfortable heading into the race and pretty confident. She was able to go out there and execute her race. Placing second in this conference is pretty outstanding. She had a great day."

The MSU men's team captured 100 points to earn its best performance at the Big Sky meet in the past five years. The Bobcats used a team-effort to jump up the conference standings.

Redshirt junior Ty Mogan was among the top 10 individuals for a majority of the 8K race and eventually finished 12th in a time of 24:15.0. MSU put together a scoring lineup time split of just 46 seconds.

Freshmen Duncan Hamilton and Cooper West were the Bobcats' second and third fastest runners. Hamilton, who moved up 14 spots from the 2.1-mile to 4-mile split, placed 15th overall with a mark of 24:19.2. West finished 22nd in a time of 24:36.5 for MSU as both Bobcats made their first Big Sky meet appearances.

"Duncan and Cooper did a great job of running their own race and not getting out too fast," Weese said. "They both started the race out back in 40th place and maybe even higher than that, but they steadily worked their way up the entire race and had a great distribution of effort. I think that putting together a race plan and the way they raced helped them finish well in the overall standings."

Anthony Schmalz completed his first finish in the MSU scoring lineup this season by taking 23rd individually. Schmalz moved up 14 positions from the 2.1-mile to 4-mile split and eventually was the Bobcats' fourth fastest runner by crossing in at 24:38.1.

"Anthony Schmalz had by far his best race of the season and perhaps his best cross country race ever," Weese said. "That really helped us out on the men's side with the team score."

Freshman Isaac Schmidt rounded out the Bobcats' team point total by finishing 28th with a time of 24:51.7. Riley Collins (25:17.4) took 44th, Collin Buck (25:31.6) placed 55th and Braden Stremcha (25:38.5) to round out MSU's Big Sky meet effort.

Northern Arizona, the top-ranked team in the nation, won the Big Sky title on the men's side with 21 points. Weber State finished second with 70 points, finished ahead of 25th-ranked Southern Utah (76). The Bobcats' fourth-place showing was 17 points ahead of fifth-place Idaho State (117).

"The guys were not that far behind Southern Utah and Weber State," Weese said. "Going into the meet Southern Utah was ranked 25th nationally. If we have everyone healthy and hitting on all cylinders on the men's side, we have a really strong possibility of being competitive with them at the regional meet."

The Bobcat women were unofficially in third as a team through the first third of its race, but MSU eventually took sixth in the Big Sky meet with 138 points.

Gillian Maness was the Bobcats' second faster runner on the women's side as she took 23rd in her first conference appearance with a time of 17:26.3. Samantha Kelderman placed 30th by crossing the line in 17:32.2 and Layne Oliver narrowly trailed her with her mark of 17:38.5 to finish 33rd. Madison Liechty rounded out MSU's scoring lineup by taking 50th overall with a time of 18:12.2.

Kathleen Glockner (18:31.6) and Joby Rosenleaf (18:45.3) also raced for MSU's women's squad and finished 59th and 64th, respectively.

"We had a lot of people that had to step up on the women's side and fill some spots," Weese said. "They put in a great effort and represented themselves pretty well. We were able to gain a lot of experience for some of our younger distance runners, which will really help us in the future."

Southern Utah won the women's team crown with 28 points. The Thunderbirds were followed by Northern Arizona (65) and Weber State (92).

The Bobcats travel to Provo, Utah, next to compete in the NCAA DI Mountain Region Championships on Nov. 9.