POCATELLO, Idaho -- Henry and Hales.
With super sophomore Amber Henry leading the pack, the Weber State women captured the Big Sky Conference cross country championships Saturday morning in Pocatello, Idaho.
The Wildcat men's team, led by standout senior Brett Hales, finished second to powerful Northern Arizona in the conference meet.
"The women ran a great race and really executed our plan throughout the race," WSU coach Paul Pilkington said. "Amber got off to a great start and ran a great race and the others also competed well as a team. On the men's side, Brett had a good performance and led the race for a while. The rest of the team also ran well for us."
The Wildcat women won their fifth conference title and the first since 2006. The 'Cats scored 40 points in the meet, followed by host Idaho State (50), Northern Arizona (82), Montana State and Montana.
Henry posted a time of 17:30.50 on the 5K course, which broke the previous course record. Henry is the first Wildcat to win the individual title since Sariah Long in 2007.
"I was able to help my team take the championship," Henry said. "I knew our team would do well because we trained really well."
Junior Sarah Callister was WSU's second runner, posting a time of 17:56.92 to finish fifth overall followed by Laken Hintze who was sixth at 18:10.98. Both earned all-conference honors.
Taylor Thornley was 13th for the Wildcats at 18:32.88 and Kayla Blackford finished 15th in 18:40.27.
On the men's side, NAU won its fifth straight title and 21st overall. The Lumberjacks scored totaled 26 points with the Wildcats second with 42. Montana State was third at 86, followed by Montana and Sacramento State.
NAU's Diego Estrada was the individual winner with a time of 24:15.43, which set a new course record as well
Hales led Weber State with a third-place finish to earn all-conference honors. Hales posted a time of 24:44.60 on the 8K course. Mike Hardy was WSU's next runner at 25:00.20 with Jason Nance coming in eighth at 25:04.94, all earning all-conference honors.
John Coyle was next at 25:35.69, finishing 12th, followed by Alex Sorenson who was 13th in 25:45.51.
The Wildcats will next be in action Nov. 12 when they compete at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships in Provo.
* AGGIES WIN WAC MEN'S TITLE: At Honolulu, Utah State senior Brian McKenna claimed his second Western Athletic Conference individual title Saturday, crossing the finish line at 24:46.5 to lead the Aggie men to their sixth WAC championship in seven years while USU's women finished third.
McKenna was named the men's WAC athlete of the year for the second time in his career. USU coach Gregg Gensel was named the WAC coach of the year.
Joining McKenna in the men's top 10 was senior Daniel Howell and sophomore Kyle McKenna who finished fourth and fifth overall with times of 25:32.5 and 25:43.8, respectively, as all three earned first-team all-WAC honors.
For the Utah State women, redshirt junior captain Ruth Hilton and junior Kaylee Campbell placed ninth (18:59.3) and 10th (19:02.6), respectively. Senior Jessie Chugg ended the day in 12th place (19:06.6) as freshman Brittany Bushman clocked in at 19:15.3. Hilton, Campbell, Chugg and Bushman all earned second-team all-WAC honors.
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