Oct. 28, 2006

SALT LAKE CITY - UNLV cross country finished ninth with 266 points at the Mountain West Conference Championships, held Saturday morning at the Rose Park Golf Club.

BYU won its eighth-straight conference title with 35 points, finishing in front of Colorado State (44 points) and New Mexico (94 points) was a distant third. The Cougars had four runners finish in the top 10, paced by Kassi Anderson who won medalist honors with a time of 20:52.7 on the 6k course.

"This is a good building point for us," Rebel head coach Tony Houchin said following the race. "The entire team ran hard this morning. It is a young team and we should only get better."

Just two of the Rebels had run in a league meet before, and they were Ali Ainsworth and Jenni Shearer, who are both just sophomores. Shearer paced the Rebels, finishing 54 th with a time of 25:12.0. Ainsworth was right behind her in 55 th place, covering the course in a time of 25:22.9.

Gabreila Benito was next for UNLV, coming in 59th with a time of 26:31.1, followed by Laura Lundin (61st, 27:31.6), Desarae Tyson (62nd, 28:06.3), Ernestine Johnson (63rd, 29:27.2) and Tanesha Carr (64th, 36:17.6).

UNLV will be back in action on Nov. 11, running in the NCAA West Regional.

TEAM STANDINGS

1. Brigham Young University      352. Colorado State University     443. New Mexico                    944. Wyoming                       1135. TCU                           1216. Utah                          1567. Air Force Academy             1598. San Diego State               2039. UNLV                          266