SALT LAKE CITY – With the shortened season all wrapped up, the Utah cross country team sets its eyes on the Pac-12 Championships this Friday, March 5, as it races at Chambers Creek Park. The women s 6k race is set to begin at Noon (MT) on Pac-12 Networks.
Of the teams competing, only Stanford, Colorado, Washington and Oregon State are ranked in the Pac-12 while Oregon and Utah are receiving votes in the latest USTFCCCA Women s Poll. The Cardinal and Buffs are ranked No. 5 and No. 6, respectively, while the Huskies and Beavers check in at No. 12 and No. 24.
Utah will send Karli Branch, Morgan Jensen, Sara Leonard, Astrid Lindgren, Sarah Newton, Natalie Platil, Kennedy Powell, Sophie Ryan and Poppy Tank to the upper left coast to compete at the Pac-12 Championships.
Competing for the first time since the NCAA Championships back in 2019, the Utah cross country team had three runners finish in the top-30 led by Tank s eight-place performance as the team finished with 137 points. The senior was the first Ute to cross the finish line with a time of 20:15.7.
First time for this group to race in almost 11 months and certainly had a really nice race out of Poppy Tank, head coach Kyle Kepler said postrace. She led us and she would be the first to tell you it wasn t her smoothest raise but she hung on and fought really hard for that top-10 finish. You know, when you haven t raced in such a long time it s just really hard to, you know, feel great and feel smooth. That s just come down to time with races. When we come back here in three weeks, I strongly believe she will feel significantly better and race like the Poppy Tank that we know.