Sept. 6, 2008

Autumn Classic Complete Men's Results

Provo, UT -- The Idaho State men's cross country team showed improvement in its first road event of the season, finishing seventh at the Autumn Classic hosted by Brigham Young University in Provo.

The team, which features four freshmen, three sophomores and no juniors or seniors, finished with 177 points, well ahead of eighth-place Wildcat Track Club from the Provo area. Host BYU recorded a perfect score of 15 in the meet, as the Cougars took the top five spots. BYU's Stephan Shay ran the four-mile course in 21:00.3 to win the individual race.

Utah State finished second, Nebraska came in third, Utah Valley took fourth, a team of BYU alumni finished fifth and San Bernardino Valley College ended up sixth.

Sophomore Ryan Davis posted the Bengals' fastest time, running the 4-mile course in 22:28.9 and finishing 35th overall. The Bengals' next two finishers were both freshmen. Logan Torgison completed the course in 22:55.6 to finish 50th, and Chaz Anestos finished 70th in 23:54.4.

"Ryan is doing a really good job," head coach Brian Janssen said. "But overall, the men are struggling. This is a young team, and they need to just keep getting after it. They have to not get frustrated and just keep trying to get better."

The rest of the Bengals' runners were sophomore Aaron Wolfe (24:51.4, 84th), freshman Eric Strand (24:54.4, 85th), sophomore Scott Pearson (25:10.4, 87th) and freshman Erik Solberg (25:44.2, 92nd).

The Bengals get a week off before competing in the Bob Firman Classic on Sept. 20 in Boise.