Cross Country Kicks Off Season With MSU Bobcat Twilight on Friday
8/31/2023 10:12:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
Bobcats to host season opener on Dyche Field, with pair of 5K races beginning at 7:20 p.m.
BOZEMAN, Montana – The Montana State cross country teams kick off their 2023 season on Friday, hosting the annual MSU Bobcat Twilight on Dyche Field next to Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.
The pair of low-key 5K races get underway with the men toeing the line at 7:20 p.m., and the women racing at 7:45 p.m.
Both the Bobcat men and women were picked second in the 2023 Big Sky Preseason Coaches' Polls released last week, checking in behind front-runner Northern Arizona.
In the USTFCCCA Preseason Regional Polls announced on Tuesday, MSU's men checked in at No. 5 in the Mountain Region, while the women were ranked No. 11.
Nationally, the men were ranked 26th in the initial USTFCCCA Coaches' Poll put out on Wednesday.
Friday's races will feature a flat one-kilometer loop on the grass practice field adjacent to Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, with both men and women completing five laps.
The races are open to the public and free to attend. Montana will join Montana State as the only other team competing.
Last season, the Bobcat men enjoyed one of the best years in program history, placing second at the 2022 Big Sky Championships and earning an at-large bid to the NCAA National Championships, their first trip to the national championship race since 2002.
The historic year, which saw the Bobcats rise as high as No. 18 in the USTFCCCA Coaches' Poll, ended with a 25th place finish at the NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
In 2023, the Bobcats bring back five of the seven men who toed the line in Stillwater, while adding four freshmen and one transfer.
The women's squad placed third last year at the conference meet in Cheney, Washington, finishing with six Bobcats inside the top-32 to mark the fifth time under head coach Lyle Weese that they had earned a top-three finish.
MSU's four all-conference award winners were the program's most since 2019, when the Bobcats also placed four on the All-Big Sky team.
The Bobcat women return five of their top seven finishers from last year's Big Sky Championships.
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