MSUB Women's Cross Country 2015 Preview

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Birgitta Gray O: (406) 896-5917 E: birgitta.gray@msubillings.edu September 1, 2015 MSUB women’s cross country 2015 preview

2015 Montana State University Billings Women’s Cross Country Team

MSUB women’s cross country looks to build on conference and regional finishes last season.

BILLINGS, Mont. – After a sixth place finish for the MSU Billings women’s cross country team last season at the conference championships, the Yellowjackets are looking to build on the quality team momentum generated last year.

Slated to finish seventh in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference coaches’ poll released last week, MSUB head coach Dave Coppock sees a lot of room to move up.

“We had a very good season last year,” Coach Coppock said. “I think the women’s team has the potential to repeat our 2014 conference performances, but also could move up a spot.”

MSU Billings returns top runner junior Rio Frame, seniors Brielle Davis, Taylor Condon, and Jinise Trueblood (formerly Osborne), and sophomore Bailey Bomar. Joining the squad this season are freshmen Josey Smiedala, Sarah Beatty, Cate Klaudt, Nikki Terkildsen and Devin McDonald.

Frame finished in third or better in every race last season for the ‘Jackets. She had two top-5 finishes last year and was the runner-up at the Black Hills State Invite behind her sister Nocona, crossing the tape in 20:04.2. She helped the team to first-place finishes at both the Yellowjacket Invitational and the BHSU Invite. At the GNAC Championships, Frame placed 22nd (21:48.0), but has the goal of being top-15 this season.

“I had a great summer where I did some easy training at the beginning, but then progressed and I am now at 50 miles a week,” Frame said on her training. “My goal coming into this season is I want to be top-15 at the conference race.”

Davis finished last Friday’s time trials behind Frame in second place. The Skyview High School graduate came out for her inaugural race in a Yellowjacket uniform with an 11th-place finish at the Carroll College Invite last season in 15:43.53.

After a very successful two years at Gillette College in Wyoming, Davis transferred to MSUB last season joining the team as a junior.

“We do have a pretty young team,” Frame commented on the 2015 roster. “I feel very confident in the returners, they are going to have a really good season. The new members are going to do good too.

They just have to keep working at it, but I know once the end of the season comes around they will do really well.”

Joining Frame and Davis as returners are Condon, Trueblood, and Bomar. Seniors Condon and Trueblood finished just behind Frame and Davis in the preseason team race at Riverfront Park on Friday.

Condon competed in all seven races for MSUB last season with an eighth-place finish at Black Hills in 15:40.98. Trueblood was part of the 1-2-3-4 finish for MSUB last year at Black Hills, coming in fourth in 20:44.86. Like Frame, Trueblood is listed in the MSUB record book, holding the sixth-best time at MSUB in the 6,000m with a finish of 22:11. Bomar is coming off a freshman campaign with a top10 finish for MSUB. She was 10th at the BHSU Invite with a time of 21:29.96.

“I am looking for some runners to move up to fill in behind last year’s seniors Nocona Frame and Renae Hepfner,” Coppock said.

“They were consistently our number 1 and 2 runners last season but I know we have some talent that could help us this season.”

Junior Rio Frame

The new talent includes five freshmen, four from Billings (representing each high school in Billings), and one new athlete from Helena, Mont. Beatty is following her teammate from Billings West from last season in Bomar. McDonald competed for Billings Senior, Klaudt is from Billings Central, Terkildsen from Skyview, while Smiedala comes to MSUB from Helena High.

Klaudt and Beatty made the cut and are traveling to the team’s opening meet in Alaska. Coach Coppock knows the opening two races will be a big test for the team. “The opener at Alaska Fairbanks is a great chance to see how we stack up against a couple of other conference schools,” Coppock commented.

The MSU Billings women’s team opens its season with two meets in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Yellowjackets’ first competition will be against both Alaska and Seattle Pacific who will also be at the meet.

The team will start with a 6K on Thursday, Sept. 3 at 3:45 p.m. Alaska time followed by a 5K on Saturday, Sept. 5 at 9 a.m. Both races will be held at the Westridge Trails, a Nordic ski complex in Fairbanks.

“We have quite a few different people running this year,” Coppock said. “Rio Frame looks to be in great shape and will lead the women.”

The team has two more meets in September with the Montana State Invite on the 19th and the Roy Griak on the 26th.

The team then hosts two meets at home in October. On the ninth is the annual Yellowjacket Invitational which will be run on last year’s NCAA west region course at Amend Park. Oct. 15th will feature a dual meet between the Yellowjackets and the Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears at 4 p.m. on the course at Riverfront Park.

This year’s GNAC Championships will be hosted by Western Washington University on Oct. 24th followed by the west region championships this year on Nov. 7th at the Ash Creek Preserve hosted by Western Oregon University.

On the upcoming weekend Coach Coppock is looking forward to having two races for the team to open the season. “The courses in Alaska are run on their Nordic ski trails cut through the forested land near the UAF campus. It’s hilly and fairly challenging, but it’s a great place to run a meet. We’re probably not quite hill-trained at this point, but we’ll be fine. We want to do a lot of training while we’re up there as well and work through these early meets with our focus being on the late-season championship meets.”

Live results for the races in Alaska won’t be available, but a full recap, plus additional coverage can be found at msubsports.com, the MSUB Distance page on Facebook, MSUBXC on Twitter, and the MSUB Sports accounts on Instagram and Youtube.

2015 MSUB Cross Country Schedule September 3: Moda Health Alaska Invitational | Fairbanks, AK | Westridge Trails | 6K | 3:45 p.m.

September 5: Moda Health Alaska Invitational | Fairbanks, AK | Westridge Trails | 5K | 9:00 a.m.

September 19: Montana State Invitational | Bozeman, MT | Bridger Creek Country Club | 9:00 a.m.

September 26: Roy Griak Invitational | St. Paul, MN | Les Bolstad Golf Course| 10:00 a.m.

October 09: Yellowajcket Invitational | BIllings, MT | Amend Park | 10:00 a.m.

October 15: Yellowajcket/Battlin’ Bear Dual | BIllings, MT | Riverfront Park | 4:00 p.m.

October 24: GNAC Championships | Bellingham, WA | Lake Padden Park| 10:00 a.m.

November 7: West Region Championships | Monmouth, OR | Ash Creek Preserve| 11:00 a.m.

November 21: NCAA D2 National Championships | Joplin, MO | Lake Padden Park| 11:00 a.m. * All times local * With the exception of the National Championships, live results will not be available

--@MSUBSports | #JacketNation--