CHENEY, Wash. – Maya Kobylanski and
Kelsey Swenson delivered top five individual performances to help lead the women to a second-place finish at the 2022 Big Sky Cross Country Championships on Friday. The men's squad placed fifth overall.
The women were picked to finish second in the preseason poll and did exactly that. Kobylanski posted a third-place finish (16:37.4) while Swenson earned fifth in 16:41.1 to both take home All-Conference honors. The story of the day was Kobylanski's improvement from this year to last year's championship race, as she posted a 54-spot difference from a 57th-place finish in 2021 to a top three time in 2022.
Katja Pattis was next in 15th at 17:09.3 and was closely trailed by
Nathalia Campos in 19th, who crossed the finish line at 17:19.3. Rounding out the scorers for Idaho was
Leah Holmgren in 30th with a time of 17:51.2.
Idaho edged out two Mountain Region ranked opponents in No. 12 Montana State and No. 13 Weber State.
The men were led by senior
Lorenz Herrmann in 15th with a time of 24:15.5.
Gabriel Dinnel placed 24th in 24:37.8, who was closely followed by
Tim Stevens and
Shea Mattson who took the 27th and 29th spot.
Gage Zanette was right behind in 33rd with a time of 24:54.8.
Northern Arizona defended its title, sweeping both men's and women's competition.
The Vandals will gear up for the NCAA West Regional Championships on Nov. 11. The Vandal men and women will race the top teams in the region to try and earn a spot at the NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Okla.
