Utah State Cross Country Teams Host 2016 NCAA Mountain Region Championships

Utah State’s [University] men’s and women’s cross country teams will host some of the nation’s best runners at the 2016 NCAA Mountain Region Championships Friday, Nov. 11. Utah State welcomes 11 opponents that are nationally ranked in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) poll.

The championship events are free to attend and will be held at the Steve and Dona Reeder Cross Country Course, located at 1165 E. 1400 North. The women’s six-kilometer race will begin at 11 a.m., while the men’s 10-kilometer race will start at noon.

The Aggie men will be accompanied by six ranked opponents, including Northern Arizona (1st), Colorado (2nd), BYU (3rd), UTEP (15th), Colorado State (19th) and Southern Utah (24th).

On the women’s side, Utah State will compete against five ranked programs in Colorado (1st), New Mexico (6th), BYU (18th), Utah (20th) and Air Force (29th).

In last year’s region championships, USU’s women placed 11th with 310 points, while the men finished 16th with 406 points.

Utah State’s athletic staff has been preparing to host the region championships for a while and assistant head cross country coach, Artie Gulden, reflects on the honor of hosting such a competitive meet.

“It’s been a long buildup since we got the bid,” said Gulden. “A lot of hard work has gone into this meet. There are pros and cons to hosting any meet, but the pros are that our runners have a slight home-course advantage. Our student-athletes know the course, they’ve trained on it, and their teammates and family members will be around the course cheering them on.

“Hopefully, we will have a home-course advantage, but at the same time a con is that it’s an insane amount of work to put on a meet like this. It’s important to recognize Reed Capener (event operations) and Jack Mullaney (director of track & field operations), who have done an amazing job of alleviating the pressure of our coaching staff. Overall, it’s a tremendous honor to host the meet and hopefully we’ll be able to put on a good show for everybody.”

USU’s top performers on the men’s side include junior Dillon Maggard and senior Colby Wilson. Both Maggard and Wilson look to qualify for nationals on Friday as they are excited to run at home.

“We run on this course in workouts,” said Maggard. “I’m kind of sick of running on this course. We know every inch of it, so we know everything about the course and I think we have a big advantage.”

“I have mixed emotions for sure,” said Wilson, about this being possibly his last race as an Aggie. “It’s going to be in front of the home crowd with my fellow brethren and it might be the last time on the course with them, so that’s definitely the sad part.”

Utah State’s women are led by sophomore Kashley Carter and freshman Bailee Parker as they are both eager to test their skills against some of the best runners in the nation.

“I want to stick to the front,” said Carter. “I want to try and make it to nationals, which is a really big goal of mine. I know this course really well and that will definitely be an advantage. Having friends, family and the teammate support is going to really help encourage me to keep fighting.”

“My goal is to run faster splits than I did at the conference championships,” said Parker. “Having the family support this Friday will definitely help that happen.”

Fans can get more information about the meet by visiting the Mountain Region Cross Country Championship home page. Live stats will be available online.

The NCAA National Championships will be hosted by Indiana State in Terre Haute, Ind., Saturday, Nov. 19.

Fans can follow the Utah State track and field and cross country programs at Twitter, on Facebook and on Instagram. Aggie fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program at Twitter or on Facebook at Utah State University Athletics.

(See video interviews with Aggie track and field athletics in the original release on the USU website.)

Additional Aggie sports news is available at the Athletics website.