Men's Results Women's Results

Sept. 2, 2006

Pocatello, ID- The Utah Valley State cross country team opened its 2006 season in impressive fashion on Saturday. The men's team finished second in the Idaho State Invitational while the women finished first.

"This shows we are starting to get things where they need to be," Utah Valley State cross country coach Scott Houle said. "After a summer of training we know we have something now that we can do good things with. This is a good spring board into the season."

Senior Joe Bendoski's time of 18:56 in the 6K race earned him a first place finish. Chase Englestead was fifth at 19:48. Jake Buhler finished in sixth place at 19:51 and Danny Moody was the other top 10 finisher at 19:58.

"I was excited to see the boys go out and compete at such a high level even though they are so young," Houle said. Freshman Mary Nothum finished second in the women's 3K by running a 10:43.

"That was really big," Houle said. "She showed a lot of grit for her to pull away like that in her first college race."

Five other Wolverine runners finished in the top 10 with Karinne Bentley leading the way with a fifth place finish at 11:02. Bekah Poppinga earned a sixth place finish at 11:09 while Kirsten Barney was eighth, Trisha Wright ninth and Kim Rowberry 10th.

The Wolverines are back in action next Saturday at the BYU Autumn Classic