Utah Women Look To Carry Momentum Into Nuttycombe

By Theresa Juva Brown for DyeStat

When the University of Utah women lined up with the nation's best cross country teams at the Joe Piane Notre Dame XC Invitational this month, they never expected to capture a victory. 

Competing in just their first cross country race together, Utah’s top five runners — Bella Williams, Poppy Tank, Sarah Feeny, Cara Woolnough and Scarlet Dale — tackled the 5-kilometer course as a group, pushing one another just like they do in workouts. 

“To be honest, it was a shock to win that meet,” said Tank, a junior who finished second for the Utes behind Williams.

“We went into that race like, ‘Let’s just run with the pack of five as long as we can.’ It seemed to click really naturally for us.” 

After taking the title and outrunning teams from Colorado, the reigning national champion, and New Mexico, the reigning runner-up, the Utah women currently rank sixth in NCAA Division 1 Cross Country polls, the team’s highest ranking ever.   

“We don’t have to have that amazing result every race, but I hope we can replicate the way we ran that race,” said Williams, a junior who is also from Great Britain, where she was a standout in mountain running.

“Our goal 100 percent is to make it to nationals.”

That will be a challenging task, considering only 31 cross country teams nationwide are selected for the NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships, which this year will be held Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, Ind.

The Utah women last competed at nationals in 2016, finishing in 20th place. Last fall, the team was devastated when track and field teammate Lauren McCluskey was shot and killed on campus by a man she once dated. (He later died by suicide.) 

After struggling with that tragedy, the women this year are focused on honoring their teammate's memory by doing their best, said head cross country and track coach Kyle Kepler. 

His job is to help everyone continue to progress and most importantly, stay healthy. 

“As a coach, we always pay attention to the details and the little things,” he said. “That’s how you have to do it, whether your team is ranked 56th or sixth or not ranked.” 

In addition to relying on Kepler for guidance, the women lean on each other for support. 

Tank, Williams and Dale, all from Great Britain, and Woolnough, who hails from Australia, have particularly bonded over being far away from their families. 

“We are just all really good friends outside of running,” Tank said. “The biggest thing is that we genuinely care about each other.”

That means the women easily celebrate each other’s successes, even if they didn’t perform well as an individual that day. 

With their strong team chemistry, the Utah women hope to keep surprising other teams — and themselves — with powerful performances in the coming days. 

"I think our team has always enjoyed being an underdog," Williams said. "It's nice to prove people wrong, and I think we can prove people wrong again." 

The Utes will have their next opportunity on Friday at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin XC Invitational on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wisc., where they will again face some of the country's top teams, including Arkansas, New Mexico and Stanford.