Cross Country Teams Host Annual Twilight Race

Friday, August 29

Bozeman, Mont.

7 p.m.

Montana State University

MSU Bobcat Twilight

8/28/2025 5:54:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country

Montana State cross country opens its 2025 season on Friday night, hosting the annual MSU Bobcat Twilight meet at Dyche Field in Bozeman.

By: Tom Schulz

Montana State cross country opens its 2025 season on Friday night, hosting the annual MSU Bobcat Twilight meet at Dyche Field in Bozeman.

Click here for live timing and results

The men's race gets underway at 7 p.m., followed by the women's event at 7:25 p.m. Both the men and women will run 5000-meters. Along with the Bobcats, teams from Montana, Montana Tech, Montana Western, Great Falls, Carroll, Rocky Mountain, and MSU-Billings will compete in the race.

"The Twilight is a pretty low-key start to the season," said MSU head coach Lyle Weese. "It's not meant to be a super high-profile race, but it'll be a good checkpoint for where everyone's at."

Graduation hit both men's and women's teams in the off-season, but Weese restocked one of the most powerful programs in the Big Sky Conference with experienced, returning underclassmen coupled with a few newcomers. Both the men's and women's teams have been training the past 2 ½ weeks, and Weese is ready to see what the Bobcats can accomplish in competition.

"They have shown a lot of consistency, which is a good sign that it's likely to be a really solid year," Weese said. "They've been having good solid practices and practices that they have been able to repeat again and again. So, I think we have good teams on both the men's and women's sides."

The Bobcat men will be paced by Sam Ells, who placed sixth at last season's Big Sky Conference Championship.

"We graduated a lot of high performers off of last fall's team," Weese said. "The exciting thing is that we have some individuals that have been developing over the last few years, and we've got a class of four redshirt freshmen that are ready to step in, and even though we lost so many high performers, I think we're going to have a really competitive team.

"And we could even end up being better," he added. "Right now, I see a lot of guys that could possibly be right up towards the front, but certainly Sam Ells would be the one individual that has a lot of experience and success and has been doing it for a while."

Junior Eva Koos, a product of Mukwonago, Wis., who is coming off a strong track season, is tabbed to guide the MSU women.

"Like the men, the women's team also graduated a lot, and a lot of our top five from last year," Weese said. "There's been some individuals that have been working and developing and getting stronger. And I think we're going to have a really competitive team. We'll see how things come together; we could also end up having a better team than we had last year.

"Koos is running really well right now," Weese said. "She's certainly someone that looks to be up towards the front of the pack. Claire Rutherford, a freshman from Gallatin High, is running really well as is Hannah Perrin and Madi Siana."