Montana State University
Big Sky Conference Championships
Cross Country Poised for Big Sky Championships in Missoula on Friday
10/26/2023 7:32:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
Bobcat men and women look to continue regular season momentum into Friday afternoon's championship races at snowy University Golf Course
MISSOULA, Montana – With the regular season in the rearview mirror, the Montana State cross country teams now ready themselves for postseason action, with a trip to Missoula on Friday for the 2023 Big Sky Championships, held at the University of Montana Golf Course.
The women's championship 5K race will get underway at 11 a.m., on Friday, while the men's championship 8K race starts at 12 p.m.
For the first time in league history, the conference championship races will stream on ESPN+. Live results will be available here.
Montana State's men are riding high after a standout performance at XC23 Pre-Nationals in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a fourth-place finish behind only three ranked opponents in a talented 23-team field catapulted the Bobcats back into the USTFCCCA Coaches' Poll rankings at No. 28.
The Bobcat men rose up to No. 5 in the latest USTFCCCA Mountain Region poll after being No. 9 in the previous week's edition, while the Bobcat women moved up one spot to No. 10 in the Mountain Region rankings after an 11th place finish at Pre-Nationals two weeks ago.
Montana State put on a dominant showing in their last time on this same Missoula course back on Sept. 15. The men turned in a perfect score of 15 to easily place first, with Matthew Richtman, Owen Smith, Ben Perrin, Sam Ells, and Rob McManus crossing the line in succession. MSU's women also earned an emphatic win, going 1-5-6-7-11, with Kyla Christopher-Moody clearing the next closest finisher by 24 seconds and teammates Mya Dube, Alex Moore, Grace Gilbreth, and Emma Tate coming in behind her.
On the women's side, graduate transfer Kyla Christopher-Moody has been a consistent performer in her first year as a Bobcat after coming over from the University of Colorado. The native of Royal Oak, Michigan, has not finished lower than 35th at any meet this year, with individual victories at both the Bobcat Twilight and the Montana Open before stellar runs at the nationally prestigious Joe Piane Invite at Notre Dame in September and Pre-Nationals in Virginia two weeks ago.
No. 2 runner and junior Mya Dube has turned in a pair of top-50 finishes at each of her last two meets, including a personal-best 6K finish in Virginia. The 3, 4, and 5 runners for the Bobcats have been mostly interchangeable, with different runners stepping up different weeks. Purdue graduate transfer Emma Tate had a great race in Indiana to finish as the third Bobcat and was MSU's No. 4 runner in Virginia, Bozeman native and junior Grace Gilbreth is coming off the best race of her career with a personal-best finish in Virginia as the No. 3 Bobcat, and juniors Kendra Lusk, Alex Moore, and Elena Vandersloot have all battled to give Montana State low times as scoring runners throughout the fall as well.
On the men's side, one of the top trios in the country features senior Matthew Richtman, junior Owen Smith, and redshirt junior Ben Perrin.
Those three have led the Bobcats through another fantastic regular season that has seen MSU in every national poll save one this fall, with a steady presence near the top of the toughest region in NCAA cross country, the Mountain Region.
Richtman, a native of Elburn, Ill., has delivered after a 40th place finish at the NCAA Championships last year, leading the Cats with individual victories at the Bobcat Twilight and Montana Open and most recently, a 12th place individual finish at Pre-Nationals in a highly-competitive field. Richtman's 12th place result was made even more impressive by the finishes of Owen Smith (Billings, Mont.) and Ben Perrin (Kalispell, Mont.), who came in at 14th and 16th, respectively, to ensure all three top Bobcats were within 3.8 seconds of each other.
Junior Rob McManus and sophomore Sam Ells have carried the bulk of the load as the final two scoring runners in most meets this season, with redshirt junior Levi Taylor working his way back into form after missing the first half of the season with an injury.
Entering Friday, the men's goal of a second consecutive berth to the NCAA Championships remains alive, needing stellar meets at both the conference and regional championships to become reality.
Northern Arizona will bring their USTFCCCA No.1-ranked men's and women's squads to Missoula as the two favorites in both races on Friday. The Lumberjack men have claimed six of the last seven national titles, and the Lumberjack women have placed first at six of the last seven Big Sky Championships, including each of the last four years.
Last season, MSU's men finished second as a squad behind NAU, with Duncan Hamilton (3rd), Ben Perrin (6th), Matthew Richtman (8th), Rob McManus (13th), and Levi Taylor (18th) leading the way for the Bobcats. Montana State has not finished lower than fourth at each of the last five conference championship meets, with a runner-up finish in 2022 and third-place results in 2021 and 2019.
Montana State's men last won a team title in 2002, led by a talented distance runner named Lyle Weese.
MSU's women finished third last season as a team, with Camila Noe (10th), Mya Dube (16th), Lindsey Paulson (21st), Alex Moore (27th), and Elena Vandersloot (31st) leading the way.
Montana State's women have finished third in two of the last three Big Sky Championship meets, and last won a team title in 1995.
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