The women’s cross country team finished 10th at the Griak Invitational held in Minneapolis on Saturday.
The No. 23 Cougars finished with 273 points behind ranked teams No. 8 Iowa State, No. 10 Arizona and No. 26 Michigan State. Altogether there were 26 teams that competed in the invitational.
Iowa State and unranked California tied for the first place with 128 points.
“It was a very competitive field,” BYU women’s head coach Patrick Shane said. “We beat some good teams here, so I feel like the meet was helpful in that it put us in a big environment and it is also very beneficial for the girls to learn how to deal with the pressure and excitement of that kind of atmosphere.”
Senior Morgan Haws finished second overall and was first for BYU with a time of 20:42. This race was Haws’ first race of the season and her first cross country race in four years.
Haws said she was pleased with the outcome of the race and how the team performed.
“I felt like we were really prepared for the race,” Haws said. “Coach Shane gave us a really good race plan and I think it worked out well for everyone.”
Shane created a race plan, which Haws believed helped the team perform as well as they did.
“Coach Shane told us to be patient through the first half of the race and then just start passing people through that last half and it worked out perfectly I think for everyone,” Haws said. “We all felt pretty good coming into the finish. We were passing people that whole last half of the race.”
Shane said he is optimistic for the future of the team and knows what needs to be improved for the next race.
“The scoring between our two, three, four and five was only 12 seconds and that shows remarkable depth,” Shane said. “We just need to bring a few more people up there and have that group close the gap between Morgan.”
This was the first meet this season for many runners, and Shane said he is excited to have these top runners now.
“We choose to start late and we know that it’s going to hurt us a little early on, but we feel like it’s worth it because it’s not how you run early but it’s how you run at the end of the season that really matters,” Shane said.
Besides Haws, other top runners for the Cougars included sophomore Michaelanne Laurent, who finished second for the Cougars, and sophomore Sarah Darby, who finished third.
Haws said she sees this race as a great start to the season and is looking forward to what the rest of the season holds.
“This race was a really good confidence booster,” Haws said. “I’m excited to keep working hard as a team and look forward to what the rest of the season brings.”
The Cougars will race again Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational in Indiana.
