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Cross Country
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Saturday, November 23
Terra Haute, Ind.
9:15 AM
University of Utah
vs
NCAA Championships
Photo by: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
No. 14 Cross Country Wraps Up Terrific Year with Historic Day at NCAA Championships
11/23/2019 12:37 PM | Cross Country
The Utes earn their highest finish ever at NCAA Championships.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Making its third appearance ever at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, the No. 14 Utah cross country team went head-to-head with the best teams in the nation and captured its highest finish in program history of 16th-place. The Utes were paced by junior standout Poppy Tank.
"Today was another historic day earning our highest finish ever at the NCAA Championships, completing in what was arguably the best season in the history of Utah women's cross country," head coach Kyle Kepler said. "I'm just really proud of my group and I know they're pleased but I know they aren't satisfied right now. We know we maybe didn't run our best today and would've liked more, but it wasn't an effort thing. The kids ran really hard in conditions that were brutal and they dealt with that really well."
Crossing the 4k mark of the course, Tank lost some ground checking in at 98th but kicked it into high gear over the last 2k of the race gaining 24 spots to place 74th in 21:05.8. Sarah Feeny was the second Utah runner to cross the finish line also running a very strong last 2k to gain 20 spots and clock in with a time of 21:14.8 for 98th-place as Bella Williams ran a gutsy race finishing in 107th in a time of 21:17.4.
Cara Woolnough and Trina Moreno rounded out the scoring runners for the women of Utah, registering times of 21:20.7 and 22:16.5 to finish in 117th and 218th-place, respectively. Emma Christsensen (22:22.4) and Ellie Lundgreen (22:30.1) were the sixth and seventh runners to cross the finish line for the Utes placing 222nd and 228th.
Totaling 471 points (54-72-78-87-180), Utah earned 16th-place and just nudged out No. 13 Boise State (474) by three points. Meet favorite and top-ranked Arkansas took home the hardware with 96 points beating out No. 3 BYU (102) by six points and No. 2 Stanford (123) by a dominant 27 points. Seventh-ranked New Mexico finished in fourth with 168 points and No. 6 NC State placed fifth totaling 209 points.
"It was just an amazing year and I'm just really, really proud of everybody in our program. The gals, all of our support staff, it was just a complete team effort and thanks to everybody for such a terrific year. It was very enjoyable and an ode to how far this program has come. I mean three of the last five years at this meet and have our best finish ever today, I'm just very pleased," Kepler explained.
Women's 6k
16. Utah - 471
74. Poppy Tank - 21:05.8
98. Sarah Feeny - 21:14.8
107. Bella Williams - 21:17.4
117. Cara Woolnough - 21:20.7
218. Trina Moreno - 22:16.5
222. Emma Christensen - 22:22.4
228. Ellie Lundgreen - 22:30.1
Fans can follow the Utah cross country program on Twitter (@Utah_trackfield), Facebook (UtahTrackXC) and on Instagram (@UtahTrackXC).
Players Mentioned
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