The Colorado State men’s cross country team placed fourth in the NCAA Mountain Regional on Friday, Nov. 10 in Logan, Utah.
The Rams were propelled by performances from Jerrell Mock, Grant Fischer and Cole Rockhold, who all earned All-Region honors. Mock placed sixth overall and finished the 10k with a time of 30:19. Mock has earned All-Region honors in all four of his collegiate cross country seasons. Fischer finished 10th with a time of 30:38 and earned his second consecutive All-Region recognition. Trent Powell placed 34th and finished with a time of 31:15 while Eric Hamer finished with a time of 31:22 and placed 39th.
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“A big thing for us today was the performance of Grant (Fischer),” head coach Art Siemers said in a release. “He’s a two-time All-American in track and had a bit of a late start to this season but we really feel like he’s clicking now. His top-10 performance in this really tough region shows that he’s capable of big things in eight days. That gives us another piece of the puzzle to try to put together a big NCAA Championships.”
The Rams are currently ranked eighth in the cross country coaches’ poll. With their performance in the regionals, the Rams earned a bid to the NCAA Cross Country Championships. This will be the Rams’ fourth appearance at the event in the last five years. All of the Rams’ championship appearances have been under Siemers.
“Our men ran really well today,” Siemers said. “We trained really hard last week, which you typically wouldn’t do heading into the regional – but we were very confident that our region would take care of business and send seven teams to NCAAs. We were a little more tired today, but I think it’ll really help us prepare for the NCAA Championships. We finished where we were supposed to today and I think we have a lot more in the tank in eight days.”
The Ram women finished seventh. Darby Gilfillan placed 29th and finished with a time of 20:59. Ali Kallner finished 35th with a time of 21:05 while Macy Kreutz finished with a time of 21:07, good for 38th. Dominique Ward and McKenna Spillar rounded out the roster, finishing 45th and 47th, respectively.
“The women ran the best that they’ve run all year,” Siemers said. “We beat Northern Arizona today, who is ranked No. 29 in the country. It probably won’t be good enough to reach the NCAA Championships, but it’s a nice way for them to cap off the season. I felt like we ran to our potential and it’s a good marker for us heading to track season, where we hope to win more conference championships.”
The NCAA Cross Country Championships will take place on Saturday, Nov. 18 from Louisville, Ky. The women’s 6k begins at 8:45 a.m. while the men’s 10k gets underway at 9:45 a.m.
Collegian sports reporter Mamadou Balde can be reached by email at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @mamadoubalde62.
