Orediggers picked to finish second in Frontier Mens and Womens Cross Country

The following is a release from the Montana Tech Athletic Department.

HELENA, Mont. – The Frontier Conference has released the 2023 preseason cross country coaches’ poll today. Defending champion Carroll College is picked to win both the men’s and women’s titles.  Montana Tech was picked to finish second in both polls followed by Rocky Mountain College, Montana Western, the University of Providence, and MSU-Northern.  Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams. First place was worth five points, a second-place vote is worth four points, third place worth three points, fourth worth two, and a fifth-place vote is worth one point. There are 90 total points available.

Montana Tech head coach Zach Kughn returns for his fourth season along with two NAIA All-Americans, one on each roster.  "We returned all four runners from National's a year ago, and I'm excited to see what this team can do,” said Kughn. “For the first time I feel like we have experience we aren't all freshman anymore, the program is starting to establish its upperclassman."

On the women’s side, Butte’s Hailey Nielson finished in 35^th in a field of 326 last season at the NAIA Cross Country Championships held in Tallahassee, Florida. The top 40 runners receive All-American honors. A junior this year, Nielson qualified for nationals as a freshman finishing 55^th overall.  Carlin Manning is another returning Oredigger who qualified and ran at the nationals meet a year ago where she finished 159^th overall. The senior from Kalispell will be looking to make it three straight trips to the national championship this year.

On the men’s side, the Orediggers return All-American Edwin Kipainoi. The redshirt senior from Kajiado, Kenya finished in 31^st place in Tallahassee in a field of 318 runners. He finished with a time of 24:45.0 in the 8k race.  Also looking for another shot at nationals is Justin Morgan. Justin, a junior from Thompson Falls, qualified for his first Nationals in 2022 finishing in 75^th place.  The Orediggers first meet is the Frontier Conference Preview in Great Falls at Eagle Falls Golf Course, Thursday September 7^th.  "We will learn a lot about ourselves, and the conference, in that first week. We know we are good, we know the season is long, so we will just work toward getting better week to week."

Women                                                                                 Men

Carroll College (4)            24                                           Carroll College (4)            24

Montana Tech (2)            21                                           Montana Tech (2)            21

Rocky Mountain               16                                           Rocky Mountain               16

Montana Western           14                                           Montana Western           14

Providence                         10                                           Providence                         10

MSU-Northern                  5                                              MSU-Northern                  5