After successful races on Saturday at the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the USU cross country teams moved up in the regional rankings on Monday. The U.S. Track & Field and Cross-Country Coaches Association releases its rankings each Monday. This week, the Utah State men went from eighth to fifth, while the women improved by two spots to sixth.
There was some movement in the Mountain Region rankings. However, BYU remained atop the men’s poll. New Mexico is now No. 2, followed by Northern Arizona and Colorado. The women’s top five in the region remained the same, with Northern Arizona on top, followed by BYU, Utah, New Mexico, and Utah Valley.
Honors And Ranking
The league announced on Tuesday that Joshua McKee was named Mountain West Men’s Cross Country Freshman of the Week. McKee finished 14th place at 23:51.2 in the men’s Gold 8K race at the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, good for the second-best finish out of the 74 freshmen in the field. In his second-ever collegiate race, the native of Marshfield, Wisconsin, was the third scorer for USU, helping the Aggies to a third-place finish out of 44 teams behind only No. 12 Harvard and DII No. 1 Wingate.
This is the first MW weekly honor of McKee’s career. McKee is the fourth consecutive USU to earn Freshman of the Week honors, joining freshmen Jedidiah Megargel, Luke Stockett, and Michael Moffat. With this award, Utah State is the first cross-country program in Mountain West history to claim a given individual honor four consecutive times and the fourth Mountain West program in any sport to have four different athletes claim the same honor in successive weeks.
Moving Up
The Aggie men enter the rankings at No. 30, their first national ranking since 2022. Utah State is one of three Mountain West programs in the rankings, joining No. 8 New Mexico and No. 28 Air Force. The Mountain Region Rankings, which the USTFCCCA released Monday, rank the Utah State men fifth and the women sixth. Utah State’s men’s and women’s cross country teams moved up multiple spots in week 3 of the NCAA DI Cross Country Regional Rankings, which were released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
The Aggie men jumped three spots from eight to five, while the women climbed two spots from eight to six. The top five spots in the men’s Mountain Region saw some shake-up after BYU remained at No. 1. New Mexico leapfrogged Northern Arizona to claim the No. 2 spot, Colorado held steady at No. 4, and USU jumped into the top five for the first time since 2022. In the women’s rankings, the top five remained the same: Northern Arizona at No. 1, BYU at No. 2, Utah at No. 3, New Mexico at No. 4, and Utah Valley at No. 5.
How Close It Was
Both teams are coming off strong team performances at the Paul Short Run on Saturday, Oct. 5, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Graduate Camren Todd claimed the individual championship in the men’s Gold 8K race with a time of 23:18.8, edging out second-place Hamza Chahid of Wingate by just 0.3 seconds. Todd’s performance powered the Aggies to a third-place team finish with 109 points, trailing only DII No. 1 Wingate and No. 12 Harvard.
The Aggie women placed fourth in the Gold 6K race with 160 points, led by senior Emma Thornley’s 15th-place time of 20:27.0. USU finished narrowly behind Princeton (155), Connecticut (148), and Harvard (134).
Utah State’s cross country teams will be back in action at home on Friday, Oct. 11, when USU hosts the Steve T. Reeder Invitational at 1:30 p.m. (MT) at the Steve and Dona Reeder Cross Country Course. Utah State’s men’s cross country team broke into the top 30 of the NCAA DI Cross Country National Coaches’ Polls, released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
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