By Adam P. Barr

apb007@latech.edu

 

Tech cross country finished third at the Western Athletic Conference Championships Saturday in Boise, Idaho, against five other conference contenders.

“I knew Utah was good; they are top 20 in the nation, but I thought second was up for grabs,” head coach Gary Stanley said. He said his team is still young and on proving grounds.

“It depended on the young kids and how they adjusted to conference competition,” Stanley said.

The bulldogs finished behind Utah State and Idaho with Utah scoring 16 points, one point from a clean sweep.

Idaho finished with 75 points, while Tech finished with 88.

“I thought it was a good effort on the runners’ behalf,” Stanley said.

Stanley said the team could have done better, but was happy with the team’s progress.

“I think the majority of the team gave their best effort,” Stanley said.

Stanley said the team gave it what they had and came up a little short.

“Thirteen points in separation between older stronger kids, we gave as good of an effort as we had,” Stanley said.

Junior Tim Marshall finished first for the Bulldogs with a ninth place finish with a time of 25 minutes, 59.07 seconds, while sophomore Kinsey Dinnel finished in 26:06.05 in a thirteenth place finish.

Stanley said he had some runners  perform better than they had all year.

“Zack Schuler and Wes Wilson really stepped up. Schuler ran two minutes faster than last year and Wilson proved you can have a disastrous first part of a season and really step up and improve,” Stanley said.

Stanley also said Marshall had a good run against tough competition.

“He could have come in a couple of places higher but he gave it the best he had,” Stanley said.

The bulldogs had two runners make second team all Western Athletic Conference in the meet with Marshall and Dinnel.

“Their hard work paid off and that will give them some confidence going into stiff regional competition in two weeks,” Stanley said.

Coach Stanley said considering the team’s inexperience, the team has done well.

“We were young this season,” Stanley said. “If the guys are willing to learn and set their sights high, good things will happen next year.”

Stanley said some hard competition awaits them in the next two weeks at regionals in Waco, Texas.

“33 schools are in the regional meet including the top cross country team in the nation, Arkansas, who is number one,” Stanley said.

Stanley said the team is going to train hard and give it their best effort.

“We will work a little more on mileage this week to get ready for regionals.”