by Kyle Paul
After an impressive season thus far, University of Idaho cross-country will make its way to the Bay Area for the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational Saturday.
Idaho will face regionally ranked Portland on the women’s side and Long Beach State on the men’s side as well as in-state competition Boise State and Idaho State, along with multiple Pac-12 teams.
“We’ll really go after them to kinda create a similar scenario as we would at the (conference championship)” coach Wayne Phipps said.
The Vandals are No. 12 in the West region on the men’s side and No. 13 on the women’s, and hope to improve again this weekend as they have all season. Phipps is proud of how well both teams have been competing against tough competition.
“We’ve had some outstanding performances,” Phipps said. “I really feel we’re in a position to keep progressing … I’m very excited and very confident right now and feel that the way we worked our schedule and how well we’ve competed against those teams has been perfect for us.”
Going into the Bronco Invitational sophomore Hannah Kiser, who has not lost a meet, looks to continue her streak of placing first among female collegiate competitors in every race this season. Kiser ran her first 5,000-meter race in 16:45.71 at the Dellinger Invite two weeks ago, finishing first overall.
On the men’s side, senior Stephane Colle, junior Barry Britt and senior Markus Geiger will lead the Vandals. All three finished in the top 20 at the Dellinger Invite putting up sub-25 minute times in the 8,000-meter race.
This meet will mark the end of the regular season for cross-country and Phipps plans to use the invitational as an opportunity to fine-tune before championship racing begins.
“I think we put ourselves in a good position to put on the finishing touches. Everyone’s starting to get a little more healthy than they were a couple weeks ago,” he said.
The WAC Championships will take place in two weeks in Honolulu, and Phipps is confident the Vandals will perform well.
“I really feel we’re in a position to keep progressing and win a conference championship on both the men’s and women’s sides,” Phipps said.
The Bronco Invitational will be held at Baylands Regional Park in Sunnyvale, Calif. The event begins at 9 a.m. and will feature a 5,000-meter women’s race and an 8,000-meter men’s race. This will be the Vandals’ last competition before championship racing starts Oct. 29 with the WAC Championships.