BILLINGS, Mont. – The fall cross country schedule continues on Friday, September 13 when both Montana State University Billings teams compete in the Frontier Preview Open at Amend Park in Billings, hosted by Rocky Mountain College. The men's race is set to begin at noon followed by the women at 1 p.m. It will be the first of three races at Amend Park, a traditionally fast course for athletes. The final field of teams is still being determined but the 'Jackets may see opponents including Black Hills State, Dickinson State, Rocky Mountain College, and Dawson County Community College.
 
"Our team is excited to be racing at home and even though we only had six days from our last meet, I expect us to be a little bit fresher than we were at the Hardrocker," commented head coach Jon Woehl. "With it being a little bit faster course, I think we'll see our times rebound a little bit depending on the weather. We should be able to walk away from this meet feeling a little bit better about our times."
 
Last Saturday, both teams appeared in the Hardrocker Cross Country Classic at Robbinsdale Park hosted by South Dakota Mines and received positive and mixed results. The women finished third of four teams and the men were second of five. Nikki Aiken crossed the line in first place for her first individual career victory. Aiken ran the 5K event in 21:25.40 and garnered Great Northwest Athletic Conference cross country player of the week honors on Monday. Though Aiken was more than a minute off her personal best time, she ran well on the challenging Robbinsdale Park course to earn the win.
 
Ase Ackerman took the top spot among the men at the Hardrocker and placed 13^th with an 8K time of 29:21.68. Ackerman competed in six events last fall as a freshman.
 
"I think Ase and Nikki will do really well this week," Woehl said. "They both had very good workouts yesterday and they were doing to maximum of what I was asking for. I think if we weren't racing this week, they could easily have done even more in practice so I'm optimistic. Now that we are going to have a little more recovery time built in after this weekend as well."
 
Freshmen Bryant Edgerton and Nick Redgrave had positive starts to their careers as did junior Peder Rickbeil in his first race at MSUB. All five women on the roster are expected to compete on Friday, including sophomore Sierra Durbin, sophomore Rachel Hiner, junior Miranda Livingston, and sophomore Kailee Stoppel.
 
"We are just mainly looking to go out and compete and do better than last week," Woehl said. "We're still trying to figure out exactly who we are and focusing more on ourselves than the teams we're facing this week."
 
The Yellowjackets have three meets on the schedule before the GNAC Championships in Billings on Saturday, October 26.