The Idaho State cross country teams concluded their seasons with strong performances from Jacob Campbell and Presli Hutchison at the NCAA Mountain Regionals on Friday in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Campbell led the Bengal men with a time of 32 minutes, 12.09 seconds to finish 58th overall.

“His (Campbell’s) senior year, to have all these Achilles problems and in the final race of his career put it all together despite the emotions and pressure at the biggest stage we race on was huge,” said Bengals head coach Nate Houle.

The men placed 13th in the 16-team race with a 2:43:14.45 combined-finish time. The men’s race began quicker than anticipated after a lone racer launched out of the gates.

“The guys really showed some intelligence and some maturity and laid low,” Houle said. “Really they waited for the race to come back to them and they made up a lot of ground so that was good to see.”

The two automatic bids to the NCAA National Championships were awarded to Colorado and the University of Texas at El Paso for first- and second-place finishes.

The ISU women finished 15th out of the 19 teams competing. Hutchison, a sophomore, was 54th overall with a time of 22:26.69. Senior Katie Nicholls and junior Carly Hansen both finished in the top 65.

“Carly Hansen was a complete stud today,” Houle said. “She was almost a minute faster than she was last year on this course. That girl is a fighter.”

Colorado and New Mexico finished first and second and will represent the Mountain Region at the NCAA National Championships.

Idaho State finished with 381 points overall, 75 points from a spot in the top 10.

“They’ve grown to the point where they are able to mute some of the outside influences and still perform at the level they need to race at despite a lot of noise or zero supporters or the weather,” Houle said. “They let all the extraneous variables just be there and still perform well and that’s a huge takeaway for me.”