Oct. 8, 2011

Final Results - Men

Final Results - Women

CEDAR CITY -- In their final regular season meet of the 2011 season, the UVU men's and women's cross country teams finished second and third, respectively, Saturday at the Color Country Invitational hosted by Southern Utah University.

"Overall, it was a great day for us," UVU cross country coach Scott Houle said. "We went out competitive and raced smart. It was a good weekend for us."

Now the Wolverines will set their sites on the 2011 Great West Conference Championships Oct. 29 at Grand Forks, N.D.

"We are going to try and keep people healthy and get them peaking at the right for the conference meet," Houle said.

The Wolverines were chosen by the league coaches to defend both the men's and women's GWC titles in 2011. Utah Valley won both championships in 2009 and 2010 and also won the women's title in 2008, the first year of GWC cross country competition.

At SUU, Shelise Walker finished third overall in the 4K race with the time of 14 minutes, 41.76 seconds, while Ivie Gonsalves finished sixth overall with the time of 15:03.63 and Kalina Zufelt-Clegg finished 11th at 15:23.14.

"Shelise went out conservative and then came on strong at the end, but couldn't quite run down the SUU girl," Houle said. "Shelise had a great race."

Idaho State (27) won the meet on the women's side, while SUU (50) and UVU (51) finished second and third, respectively.

On the men's side, UVU sophomore Cliff Nielson finished fourth overall with the time of 19:20.07, while Trevor Sharp (19:47.11), Joseph Christensen (19:47.85) and Mike Felix (19:49.84) finished 10th, 11th, and 12th, respectively.

"Cliff is getting better and better with each race," Houle said. "He's gaining confidence with each race. We're excited with his progress and he's showing that he deserves to be up there with the top runners."

UVU's Joshua McCabe, running unattached, finished second overall with the time of 18:37.73, while Krystal Harper and Angela Baker, who both ran unattached, finished seventh and eighth with times of 14:57.29 and 14:58.69, respectively.

SUU won the men's side with 17 points, while UVU (52) and Idaho State (72) were second and third, respectively.

In other notable finishes: Alexander Dutton (15th, 20:05.16); Chris Claflin (17th, 20:10.66); Macy Butterfield (18th, 20:16.62); Jessica Wilding (15th, 15:38.48); Ally Deeter (16th, 15:38.95); Stephanie Talbot (22nd, 16:01.72); Montana Brian (27th, 16:40.24).