Montana State University
NCAA Mountain Regional Championships
Bobcat Men Capture Fifth, Women 11th at NCAA Mountain Regional Cross Country Championships
11/10/2023 4:43:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
Bobcat men put themselves in position for historic second consecutive NCAA Championships at-large berth with fantastic performance in Lubbock, Texas, on Friday
LUBBOCK, Texas — Montana State men's cross country team had a specific number in mind—five.
If the Bobcats could place fifth at Friday's NCAA Mountain Regional in Lubbock, Texas, finishing above one of the ranked teams in front of them, the odds would be in their favor to accomplish what had never been done before in program history—back-to-back appearances at the NCAA Championships.
MSU did just that, placing fifth in front of No. 23 Colorado, and will now eagerly await Saturday afternoon's NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships selection show, which airs at 3 p.m. MT on NCAA.com.
If MSU secures one of 13 at-large bids as expected, it would mark the third time in school history that the Bobcats participate in the national meet (2002, 2022).
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— Montana State TF/XC (@MSUBobcatsTFXC) November 10, 2023
"We did what we needed to do, we went out there and ran a great race," head coach Lyle Weese said. "I'm so proud of them. The Mountain Region is so strong, all the teams are really good—I don't know if we've ever beaten Colorado at a regional meet before, and if we have it's been a really long time. I'm really excited for us, really excited for the guys, and just am so proud of how hard they raced and how well they executed."
Weese, who was a student-athlete on the 2002 team and coached last year's twenty-year-drought-breaking squad, now has the Bobcats in position to potentially return to the NCAA Championships.
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— Montana State TF/XC (@MSUBobcatsTFXC) November 10, 2023
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It took a team effort for the Cats, who came in ranked No. 6 in the USTFCCCA Mountain Region Poll and one spot outside the top-30 in the National Coaches' Poll, to accomplish their top-five goal at the mostly-flat Chaparral Ridge Cross Country Course in Lubbock.
Montana State finished with 135 points, going 10-21-28-34-42 to beat out No. 23 Colorado (169 points) and Colorado State (205 points). No. 24 Air Force placed fourth (112 points).
No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 3 BYU, and No. 19 New Mexico took the top three spots on the men's side.
All five Bobcats finished in the top-50, and were led at the top by their consistent trio of Ben Perrin (10th), Matthew Richtman (21st), and Owen Smith (28th). Perrin, a redshirt junior from Kalispell, and Richtman, a senior from Elburn, Ill., each earned All-Region honors.
Perrin's result marked the 11th top-ten individual finish at a regional meet in program history, while Richtman picked up All-Region accolades for the second season in a row.
To earn their top-five team finish, the Cats needed standout performances from their No. 4 and No. 5 runners, and they got just that from junior Rob McManus (34th) and redshirt junior Levi Taylor (42nd). Redshirt freshman Sam Ells was right behind as the Bobcats' No. 6 man (45th), and Ben Saelens placed 91st.
Friday marked the third fifth-place finish at the NCAA Regional meet since 1995—each of the previous two instances, the Cats were selected to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships.
In the first race on Friday, Montana State's women capped a memorable season with an 11th place finish, their best result at an NCAA Regional since they placed 10th in 2017.
The Big Sky runners-up went toe-to-toe with six ranked teams, and closed with 310 points, right on the tails of Wyoming (9th) and Air Force (10th). No. 1 Northern Arizona took home the team title, with No. 3 BYU clinching the other automatic berth with a second-place finish. No. 20 Utah, No. 13 Colorado, and No. 22 Utah Valley rounded out the top-five.
"The whole season has been a gigantic step forward for our women's team," Weese said. "We probably didn't have our best team race of the year, but we raced hard and the year was really solid, with us doing some things we hadn't done in a while—taking second in the Big Sky Conference meet and we really had a great group, it wasn't just three or four people running well. It's a sign of really good things to come."
Mya Dube led the Bobcats with a 51st place finish. Emma Tate (61st), Grace Gilbreth (62nd), and Kyla Christopher-Moody (64th) had a strong pack, with Kendra Lusk (72nd) rounding out the scoring runners and Alex Moore (75th) and Eva Koos (79th) also finishing in the top-80.
The women's distance group will now ready themselves for the start of the indoor track and field season, which gets underway on December 7 at the Bobcat PReview in Bozeman.
UP NEXT
MSU's men now eagerly await Saturday's NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships selection show, which airs at 5 p.m. ET/3 p.m. MT on NCAA.com. If selected, the Bobcat men will fly to Charlottesville, Virginia, next weekend to participate in their second straight NCAA Championships, held at Panorama Farms.
The ten-kilometer race will be held Saturday, November 18, at 11:10 a.m. ET.
The race will be televised on ESPNU and streamed online at espn.com/watch. Live results will be available on msubobcats.com.
One month ago, Montana State raced at XC23 Pre-Nationals on the same course at Panorama Farms, placing fourth out of 23 teams in their best regular season performance of the year.
#GoCatsGo
Players Mentioned
