POCATELLO, Idaho – The Idaho State men's and women's cross country teams return to the Cedar Ridge Golf Course for the second time this season to compete in the 53rd annual Big Sky Conference Championships, hosted by Southern Utah on Halloween, Oct. 31. This is the first time Southern Utah University has hosted a Big Sky Conference Championship in any sport.
ISU can expect to face Eastern Washington, Idaho, Portland State, Sacramento State, Montana, Montana State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Southern Utah, Weber State and North Dakota at the meet. If each of these teams race only seven runners, the field size for each race will be 84 runners.
There are five Big Sky squads with spots on the women's Mountain Region Rankings with Weber State ranked fifth, Northern Arizona sixth, Montana State 11th, Montana 12th and Idaho State rounding out the poll in 15th. Eastern Washington is ranked sixth in the West Region Rankings.
Four men's Big Sky teams are ranked in the Mountain Region Rankings with Southern Utah ranked sixth, Northern Arizona eighth, Weber State 12th and Montana State 13th.
Weber State is currently ranked 27th in the women's National Coaches' Poll. The SUU Thunderbird's men just dropped out of the National Coaches Poll Rankings last week but still received votes.
Although the meet allows teams to race eight athletes, Head Coach
Nate Houle believes it is likely ISU will only run seven racers for both the men and women teams. The seven members for each squad have not yet been decided but Houle will use the results from the Color Country Invitational to aid his decision. *
The Bengal women have been able to keep their regional ranking throughout the season despite racing without their top racer from a year ago.
Kylie Hutchison will not race the rest of the season as she seeks both a medical redshirt and eligibility extension from the NCAA. If approved, she will be able to race during the 2016 season.
Houle is hoping for a top-five finish from both ISU squads.
The course layout will be identical to the one Bengal runners raced during the Color Country Invitational just three weeks ago. This time the women will complete the 2K loop three times for a 6K race and the men will run the loop four times for an 8K race.
Houle has determined the men and women perform well under different variations of the team-racing strategy he introduced at the beginning of the season and thus will run with separate strategies at the conference championships. He will study the results of previous meets to determine which strategy worked best for the men and which worked best for the women to decide how each team will race this Saturday.
Houle is excited with the progress his team has demonstrated in workouts and after a challenging two weeks of practice he plans to taper workouts hard this week, leaving his runners at their peaks heading into the postseason.
"The team is running really well together," Houle said. "Our top seven or eight kind of solidified themselves. Even in workouts it's been pretty obvious they all run pretty well. We've gotten a lot of good work in the last few weeks, really hard stuff. They've responded well and nobody is burnt out or burned up."
Although the Big Sky Championships carry a certain level of prestige, it is the NCAA Mountain Regionals the Bengals will need to place well in to qualify for the NCAA National Championships.
The Bengals will have to race in unfamiliar conditions as multiple weather sources are predicting a chance of snow Friday night with race time temperatures projected to be below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. At 5,800 feet, Cedar City, Utah has the highest elevation of any cities the cross country team has competed in this season.
It is possible that Southern Utah will provide a lead-car camera live streaming the race. Live team splits will be electronically recorded and shown on Runnercard.com. *
* This article will be updated to show the seven men and women who will compete for ISU when the information is made available, as well as information regarding the lead-car camera live stream.
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