Upcoming Event: Cross Country versus Beehive Invitational on September 12, 2025 at W: 10:00 AM / M: 10:45 AM
W: 10:00 AM / M: 10:45 AM
Cross Country
vs Beehive Invitational
Cross Country Finalizes Preparation for Pre-Nationals
10/16/2008 12:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 15, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY - The University of Utah women's cross country team is finishing their final preparations for the NCAA Pre-Nationals Meet hosted by Indiana State on Saturday. This will be the second 6K course the Utes will have competed on this season.
PROJECTED RUNNERS
Head coach Kyle Kepler is set to run our top seven runners at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course on Saturday. Every runner has had two weeks off and is well prepared for this week's 6K challenge.
"We've had three great weeks of training leading up to this meet," said Kepler. "I'm anxious to stick our nose in there and see where we stack up nationally."
The projected runners will be Alyssa Abbott (Jr.), Kellie Anderson (Sr.), Chelsea DiGrazia (Sr.), Lauren Endersen (Sr.), Janett Ern (Sr.), Samantha Gaffney (So.) and Carly Selleck (So.). All but Selleck ran in the last 6K on Sept. 27 at the Stanford Invitational. At Stanford, DiGrazia came in first for the Utes placing 30th overall with a finish time of 22:19.
THOUGHTS FROM KEPLER
"[The Pre-National] meet is an amazing race. We're preparing for it just as if it were an NCAA regional and national race. We want to get a realistic view of where we fit in nationally and we'll definitely find out this weekend."
"There are going to be at least 86 schools in the meet. There will be two seeded races of 42 teams each plus the open race. With that competitive of a field, the race may be tougher than the national meet, because there will be so many teams there. We'll have to fight for every point and maintain our progress that we've made throughout this season."
"The course is pretty fast so we should have good times. The finish is uphill and that will make the difference in the meet. It was the same layout at Stanford in our last meet and we did an awesome job finishing that meet."
Players Mentioned
Distance/CC
/ Cross Country
Distance/CC
/ Cross Country
Distance/CC
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