Men’s cross country fourth at Big Sky Championships, women’s team 11th
A battered lineup didn’t slow down the Idaho men’s cross country team from exceeding preseason expectations Saturday at the Big Sky Championships in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
The Vandal men’s team finished fourth out of the 12 teams competing in the meet — one spot better than the team was picked in preseason polls.
“The guys ran incredible,” Idaho coach Travis Floeck said. “They really stepped up. We were looking for us to collectively have our best day of the season and that’s exactly what they did. This is a very competitive conference and I thought they ran phenomenal. I’m really proud of them.”
Senior Cody Helbling led the way for Idaho with a 14th-place finish in the men’s 8-kilomoter race with a time of 24 minutes, 43.3 seconds. Sophomore Tim Delcourt, who sat out in Idaho’s last meet to rest a nagging muscle injury, finished second for Idaho at 17th overall in 25:04.7.
“For Tim to come off an injury and race like he did was incredible to watch,” Floeck said.
Junior Santos Vargas (25:31.9), sophomore Nathan Stark (25:53.8) and junior Cayle Turpen (26:25.1) rounded out scoring for the Vandals.
On the women’s side, Idaho finished 11th with a score of 220. Freshman Sierra Speiker continued to lead the way for the Vandals, finishing 13th in 17:45.1. Sophomore Valerie Mitchell (18:14.9), junior Alex Sciocchetti (18:28.8), junior Marquita Palmer (18:34.5) and junior Abby Larson (18:47.2) finished the scores for Idaho.
Sophomore Alex Siemens, who is battling an injury, and junior Halie Raudenbush, who is redshirting this season, didn’t compete for Idaho.
The Vandals continue the fall season Nov. 14 for the NCAA West Regional Championships in Palo Alto, California.
“We have a ton of momentum,” Floeck said. “We’re going to take this and gain a lot of confidence.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]