Women's XC Travels to Minnesota for Friday's Griak Invite
9/19/2024 10:49:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
MSU women get first real test of the fall with chance to race against several regionally ranked teams
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- Montana State women's cross country heads to the Land of 10,000 Lakes for the 38th Griak Invitational this week, hosted by the University of Minnesota on Friday morning in Minneapolis.
The six-kilometer Jack Johnson Women's Gold Race gets underway at 10:45 a.m. CT/9:45 a.m. MT on the University of Minnesota's Les Bolstad Golf Course.
The race will be streamed on both Big Ten Network Plus and RunnerSpace+, with live results available here.
"We are excited as a team to head into a historically significant meet like the Griak Invitational," head coach Lyle Weese said. "Year in and year out, it is a really high quality NCAA Division I meet with some high caliber teams."
The meet is the first opportunity for the Bobcat women to compete since August 30, when they narrowly defeated Boise State, 26-29, at the five-kilometer MSU Bobcat Twilight in Bozeman.
"I'm hoping to see us compete really well from the top to the bottom of the team," Weese said. "Obviously the first five runners from each team have the most significant impact on the scoring, but as a program we want to see our team compete well from the top to bottom."
Graduate student Kyla Christopher-Moody was named Big Sky Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week on September 3rd after winning the Twilight crown for the second year in a row, doing so in a course-record time of 17:18.60.
Christopher-Moody is one of several upperclassmen returners that are looking to build on the Cats' stellar 2023 season, joined by fellow All-Conference honoree senior Grace Gilbreth and scoring runners senior Alex Moore and senior Kendra Lusk. Senior Hannah Perrin and junior Lindsey Paulson will also be in the mix to score for MSU on Friday morning.
"We do have a lot of seniors and a lot of upperclassmen that have run in a lot of cross country races and track races, so I think that'll be really beneficial and will give our team a sense of security as we head into a meet that will be a big jump in the level of competition from our first race at the Bobcat Twilight," Weese said.
The 17-team field includes three squads ranked above Montana State in the latest USTFCCCA Mountain Region Rankings: No. 5 Utah Valley, No. 6 Colorado State, and No. 9 Wyoming.
The Bobcats checked in at No. 13, falling one spot after starting the season at No. 12.
"There are probably six teams that have a chance to win this meet," Weese said. "I would expect it to be pretty close up towards the front in terms of the team scores, and I think we are one of those teams that could be right in the mix. It's a really good opportunity for our team to go into a meet where there are a lot of competitors outside our region, but also a meet where we have the opportunity to perform really well as a team."
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