September 13, 2007

Jackets to Run in Bozeman Saturday

BILLINGS, Mont. – Both Montana State University Billings cross country teams will compete in the Montana State Invitational in Bozeman on Saturday.  The meet will be the Yellowjackets’ second of the season after kicking off 2007 at the South Dakota Mines Invitational last weekend.

Saturday’s races will be run at the Bridger Creek Golf Course in Bozeman.  The men’s race starts at 9 a.m., and the women’s race starts at 9:40.  Other teams competing will include Montana State, Montana, Wyoming, Utah State, Weber State, Concordia, Carroll College, and Rocky Mountain College.

“I’m hoping we can keep some of the momentum from last week where our first through seventh women finished within 40 seconds of each other,” said Yellowjacket head coach Dave Coppock.  “That kind of close packing will really help when we come into the larger meets.” 

The Lady Yellowjackets swept places 8-14 to place second at the South Dakota Mines Invitational.  Freshmen claimed the top four spots in the Jackets’ scoring order, led by Diana Stanley.  The men were led by senior Jarred Rensvold’s seventh place finish.

“The women should drop quite a bit of time on the Bozeman course since it’s a lot easier than the hills and rough footing we usually encounter on the South Dakota Mines course,” said Coppock.  “It’s not uncommon for our women to drop two minutes or more between the two meets.  I was really happy to see our freshmen, led by Dianna Stanley, step up and compete well in their first meet.  This week will really be a test for them with all the DI schools, and I think they will learn a lot competing in such a deep, fast field.”

“Our men’s team is still lacking some depth, but we had really good first performances from freshmen Ryan Ceynar and Kelley Miller who backed up senior Jarred Rensvold.  Jarred is running very strong this year and had a great run last week finishing in the middle of a very deep Black Hills State squad.  I’m expecting him to be able to compete well with the DI runners this weekend.”