Cross Country Closes Season at Midwest Regional

STILLWATER, Okla. -- The Creighton Cross Country programs closed the 2023 campaign with a strong finish at the NCAA Midwest Regionals in Stillwater, Okla., on Friday morning. The Creighton men took 16th place, its best mark at a Regional since 2007, while the Bluejay women earned a 26th place finish.

The 16th place finish was well ahead of its 23rd place showings the previous two seasons and its best mark since taking 13th in 2007.

"We had improvements for both teams today over last year," said Chris Gannon. "It was a solid effort by the men, finishing one point out of the top 15 is tough. We had four guys run their first ever 10k today and I'm proud of how they ran and competed. We will return at least six of the seven guys, and I'm excited about what is ahead for this group."

Creighton's top three men's runners ran as a pack and finished six seconds apart on the 10K course. Junior Ryan Montera led that trio in a time of 31:51.4 to take 54th overall, just ahead of freshman teammate Evan Kraus (56th; 31:54.8) and senior Marcos Gonzalez (58th; 31:57.2). All three men rank on the school's 10K best list.

Freshman Tommy Murray ended in 117th place with a time of 32:51.7 and sophomore Brian Hiltebrand rounded out the scoring contingent in 128th place with a time of 33:03.6.

Oklahoma State dominated the men's race with five runners in the top eight, including a sweep of the podium by Denis Kipngetich (1st; 29;39.2), Brian Musau (2nd; 29:49.2) and Fouad Messoudi (3rd; 30:03.5). The men's race featured 202 competitors and 28 teams on the Greiner Family OSU Course.

For the 26th time in as many collegiate cross country races, senior Danielle Hotalling led the Bluejay women in her final competition. Running on her birthday, the Lee's Summit, Mo., native took 52nd place with a time of 21:45.9 on the 6K layout, and improvement of 25 seconds from her time in Stillwater at the 2019 Midwest Regional meet.

"Danielle wrapped up a pretty decorated career today," noted Gannon. "She has left a mark that will transcend her time as a Bluejay. The rest of the team will shift our focus to the track season ahead and our first opportunity ever to compete at the BIG EAST Track Championships this spring."

Senior Morgan Koca clocked a time of 23:02.0 to place 140th, just ahead of sophomore Carly Manchester's 166th place showing in 23:28.5. Rounding out CU's scoring five were junior Siobhan Stoll (174th; 23:26.4) and sophomore Katherine Soule (179th; 23:46.5).

"The ladies have a solid group of freshmen and sophomores who ran well," commented Gannon. "Losing that group of seniors will be tough, they contributed a lot to our program over the years."

Creighton finished in 26th place among the 32 teams with a score of 700, just ahead of Omaha's 705. That marked a four-spot improvement over last year's placement at Regionals.
Host Oklahoma State had the top two finishers in the women's field of 231 competitors as Billah Jepkirui (20:28.4) and Taylor Roe (20:29.1) paced the field to help OSU win the team race with 30 points. Iowa State was runner-up with 75 points.

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Players Mentioned

Marcos Gonzalez

Brian Hiltebrand

Danielle Hotalling

Morgan Koca

Evan Kraus

Carly Manchester

Ryan Montera

Tommy Murray

Katherine Soule

Siobhan Stoll