OREM, Utah - Utah Valley State junior Joe Bendoski finished fourth in the men-s competition at the Autumn Classic, hosted by BYU on Saturday. Bendoski finished the four-mile race with a time of 20:31.5.
"Joe is a very aggressive runner,- Utah Valley State coach Scott Houle said. -He works really hard and has a huge passion for the sport. I thought he-d finish in the top 10 today.-
As a team, Β Houle came away encouraged with the performance of his men-s and women-s teams following their first meet of the year.
-Overall the kids did a good job,- Houle said. -We got to race against some of the best teams in the country in BYU, Minnesota, Weber State and Utah. This will take a lot of jitters out of our young athletes and it will help them understand how to get better.-
Houle was referring to the fact that 13 freshmen (eight men and five women) competed on Saturday.
One freshman who had an impressive first meet was Karrine Bentley as she was the first Wolverine runner across the finish line in the women-s 5K race. Bentley finished in 17th place at 19:49.3
-It was big for her to have a good race,- Houle said. -She-ll continue to improve through out the course of the season.-
Houle added that he was pleased with the performances of Michael Vick and Tricia Lenneberg. Lenneberg just returned from an LDS mission and finished the 5K race in 20:45.6 while Vick cut nearly a minute off his time from last years meet to finish with a time of 22:22.5.
The Wolverines will compete next Saturday in Bozeman, Montana at the Bobcat Invite.
