The ASU men's cross-country team had one goal going into the George Kyte Invitational: win.
They did just that, beating host school NAU along with UA, Grand Canyon State, and Dixie State. The Sun Devils finished with a total of 26 points, opposed to the Lumberjacks’ 30 points.
Coach Louie Quintana was happy with his team's performance.
“Regardless of who we beat, it was just satisfying to get a ‘W,'” Quintana said.
The Sun Devils all ran well, and no one finished worse than 10th overall.
Redshirt junior Darius Terry won the race with a time of 25:38.8. Quintana was impressed with Terry’s first meet this year and his great improvement since last year.
“He really ran the heck out of that last mile,” Quintana said. “He and the No. 1 runner for NAU (sophomore Tim Freriks) were together with a mile to go and Darius opened up 17 seconds on him. That's a significant gap over a mile.
“It’s really a great thing for us to see because last year one of the things he really struggled with was closing races down. 25:38 is a great run up at 7,000 feet and not many people break 26 minutes on that course. He's advanced his training to the point where he is confident in his cross-country ability.”
Unfortunately, the race was not all cheers. ASU junior Doug Smith got tripped up at the start and suffered multiple injuries, including a “gnarly gash” to the head, as described by Quintana. Smith was held out of practice Sunday and Monday, but should be ready on Tuesday.
Women take 2nd in respective race
On the women's side, the Sun Devils finished second, only three points behind rival UA. Fifth-year coach Ryan Cole wasn't satisfied with the finish, but understands it’s only the first meet of the year.
“It was a good start, but we wanted to win,” Cole said.
Many of the team's top runners, like senior Lindsay Prescott, were held out of the meet.
“We made a decision mid-week it may not be in her best interest to open up out there,” Cole said. “Arizona sat their top 5 or 6 and we sat arguably 4 or 5 of our top 5 or 6 so both teams gave opportunities to people that needed confidence. Lindsay has run a lot of races and that was a good crew we put out there to be able to go toe to toe with them and we did, so Lindsay will have a lot of opportunities throughout the season so we are excited to see where she's at in a couple of weeks.”
With the top runners on the shelf this meet, other women had a chance to step up and make an impact. Freshman Mackenzie Maki, running in her first-ever collegiate meet, finished 15th overall with a time of 18:35.7, and Coach Cole was impressed with her performance.
“She's a tough kid, like a lot of our girls, so that was really nice to see,” Cole said. “She is really excited to see herself improve throughout the year. She felt good about it but she wanted to run faster, but yeah, pretty pumped about it.”
Top-10 finishers for the Sun Devils in the meet included juniors Natasa Vulic, Catherine Loden, Kate Lydy, and senior Kauren Tarver, finishing fourth, fifth, eighth, and ninth, respectively.
The next meet for both ASU teams is on Friday at the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson.
Reach the reporter at dsshapi1@asu.edu
