CEDAR CITY, Utah -- The Southern Utah University Thunderbird cross country teams will be competing at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships in Salt Lake City on November 15. The women's race will begin at 11 a.m. followed by the men at 12 p.m.

Last Time Out

The T-Birds most recently competed at the Big Sky Conference Championships where the women finished third and the men finished fourth.

Alison Pray led the Thunderbird women with a third place finish timing of 18:15.9 in the 5K. Pray was followed by Madison Fruchey in 11th with a time of 18:44.1 and Harley Taylor in 22nd with a time of 19:15.8.

 On the men's side of the team, Sean Newcomb led the T-Birds with a 14th place finish timing 27:33.0 in the 8K. Christian Ricketts (27:40.4) and Nate Osterstock (27:43.6) followed.

Last Time at NCAA Mountain Regionals

The Southern Utah T-Birds last competed at the NCAA Mountain Regionals in 2018 where the women placed fourth and the men placed fifth.

Angie Nickerson finished first for the Thunderbird women timing 19:57.6 in the 6K placing fifth in the competition. Nickerson was followed by Pray (20:54.0) and Fruchey (20:59.7).

The women finished ahead of teams such as Air Force and Northern Arizona.

Aidan Reed led the men's team with a fourth place finish clocking a time of 29:23.3 in the 10K. Ricketts followed in 20th with a time of 29:46.6.

The men finished ahead of Utah State and Weber State.

Meet Preview

The Thunderbirds will be competing at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships on Friday, November 15th. The women will begin the meet at 11 a.m. followed by the men's race at 12 p.m.

Pray, Fruchey  and H. Taylor will be seen on the course in Salt Lake City as well as Raquel Chavez and Samantha Taylor. Both athletes will be competing at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships for the first time in their career.

Chavez last competed at the Big Sky Championships where she finished 28th with a time of 19:25.3. She was immediately followed by S. Taylor with a time of 19:25.5.

Newcomb, Ricketts and Osterstock will also be competing on Friday. They will be accompanied by Joshua Collins and Jason Quinn.

At the Nuttycombe Invitational, Collins finished 43rd trailing Ricketts with a time of 24:12.2 in the 8K. This will be Collins' fourth time competing with the Thunderbirds at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships. 

Quinn most recently competed at the Big Sky Championships where he finished the 8K race with a time of 28:25.6. This will be Quinn's first time competing at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championships.

"We have seen this trend before and this weekend we just need to make sure we run the races we know we are capable of," commented head coach Eric Houle. "Even though we didn't run the way we wanted to at Big Sky, we still have a chance at nationals."

"This weekend we are aiming for the top ten," added Houle. "We have healthy athletes who are responding well to training so we should be able to show up as competitors this weekend."

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