Sept. 9, 2006

Provo, UT- For the second straight year Utah Valley State's Joe Bendoski finished in fourth place at the BYU Cross Country Autumn Classic held at East Bay Golf Course in Provo. Bendoski finished the four-mile race in a time of 20:14.4.

"Joe ran a very smart race this year," Utah Valley State associate head coach Kirke Adamson said. "He was very controlled. We expect him to be a huge leader on the course for us. We hope he slowly pulls our other athletes up to his level."

As a team the men finished third in the four team competition. The Wolverines did beat out Idaho State while BYU and Colorado State controlled the men's competition.

Following Bendoski, the next Wolverine to cross the finish line was sophomore Chase Englestead. He finished 14th and had a time of 20:54.The other Wolverine runner to finish in the top 20 was Jacob Buhler at 17th.

The women finished third with Colorado State winning the competition and BYU coming in second. The top Utah Valley finishers were sophomore Karinne Bentley in 10th place and freshman Mary Nothum in 11th. Bentley finished the 5K race with a time of 19:10.9 while Nothum was a second behind her teammate.

Freshman Trisha Wright finished 14th at 19:24.5

"My biggest excitement was Trisha Wright," Utah Valley State coach Scott Houle said. "She has the potential to run with the top girls.

Overall Houle said he was very pleased with the way his team ran with BYU and Colorado State.

"I thought the kids did a great job," he said. "To run in that type of atmosphere with high powered teams like BYU and Colorado State was great for them. I thought they ran aggressively and had fun."