Nov. 18, 2015
The Nevada Wolf Pack women's cross country team tied their second best finish in school history in the NCAA Mountain Regional Championship this past Friday. The Wolf Pack grabbed ninth in Albuquerque, N.M., beating two teams that had finished directly in front of them at the conference championship two weeks before, Wyoming and Utah State.
With the Sandia Mountains jutting skyward only a few miles away, athletes were treated to near perfect race conditions on a sparklingly fall day on the UNM North Golf Course. Nevada returned to the same course that had hosted the regional championship the year before, with all of the returning Wolf Pack athletes running faster and placing higher than in 2014.
Employing a strategy of running a build up race, the bulk of the Nevada squad sat at the back of the race at the kilometer mark with six athletes in the last ten, with only Emily EmKay Myers running mid-pack, in the mid-50s. Focusing on the middle of the race, the Wolf Pack attacked kilometers two through four of the six k race, moving up steadily.
Myers earned her second straight All Region honor, taking a well-earned 17th. Myers finished only three spots and a mere two seconds out of individually qualifying for the NCAA National Championship. Erika Root, who has had breakthrough performances in the last two races of her senior year, had her best Regional performance by 23 places. Following a rough outing at conference, Anna Preciado came back with the best race of her career.
The track and field team will open the 2015-2016 season on December 4-5 at Weber State. The middle and long distance squads wont be in action until after the Christmas break when the whole track and field team returns to action January 15-16 at Boise State.
TEAM
1-Colorado 49, 2-New Mexico 50, 3-Utah 116, 4-BYU 126, 5-Webber St 128, 6-N AZ 175, 7-Air Force 175, 8-Colorado St 181, 9-NEVADA 295, 10-Wyoming 306, 11-Utah St 310, 12-Montana St 354, 13-UTEP 360, 14-Utah Valley 375, 15-Idaho St 381, 16-Texas Tech 396, 17-So Utah 454, 18-No Colorado 502, 19-New Mexico St 503
INDIVIDUAL 127 finishers
Name/Year Place Time Notes
Emily Myers/Sr 17 21:22 23rd in 2014, 27 sec faster than 2014
Erika Root/Sr 44 22:14 67th in 2014, 31 sec faster than 2014
Anna Preciado/Sr 73 22:48 85th in 2014, 20 sec faster than 2014
Marissa Suan/So 76 22:52 103rd in 2014, 36 sec faster than 2014
Mckenna Evans/Fr 90 23:10 DNR in 2014
Meagan Wood/So 96 23:28 110th in 2014, 8 sec faster than 2014
Caitlin Devitt-Payne/Sr 119 24:21 DNR in 2014
