Men's Cross Country | 9/2/2021 10:32:00 AM

(UVU INV'L MEET INFORMATION)
(LIVE MEET SCORING)

The Dixie State men's and women's cross country teams make their 2021 fall debut this Friday at the Utah Valley Invitational, which will be held at Lakeside Park in Orem. The women's 5-kilometer race will get underway at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men's 5K run at 6 p.m.
 
The Trailblazers will run against teams from Utah, Southern Utah, Idaho State and host UVU.
 
2021 FALL SCHEDULE: Dixie State has five races on its 2021 fall docket, three of which will be run in the state of Utah. Following the UVU Invite, the Trailblazers will head back to Utah County of the BYU Autumn Classic next Saturday Sept. 11, and will enjoy a four-week break before traveling up the road to Cedar City for the SUU Color Country Inv'l on Saturday, Oct. 9.
 
DSU's final two races will be held in Riverside, Calif., the first coming at the UC Riverside Highlander Inv'l on Saturday, Oct. 16. The Blazers will then wrap up the season two weeks later at the 2021 WAC Championships. Both of those races will be run at the UCR AG OPS Course.
 
HEAD COACH JUSTIN DECKER: Justin Decker (Dixie State, 2008) begins his 11^th season at the helm of the Dixie State cross country program. During his tenure at Dixie State, Coach Decker has mentored 24 all-conference, seven all-region, and two All-American athletes (Rachel Young in 2012 and Billie Hatch in 2019). In addition, he has earned certification as a USA Track & Field Level 1 Coach and USTFCCCA Endurance Event Specialist. 

Coach Decker grew up in St. George and graduated from Pine View High School in 2004. After high school, he attended Dixie State and competed on the cross country team during the 2007 and 2008 seasons while serving as the team's captain and SAAC representative. He graduated from Dixie State in 2008 with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and graduated from Southern Utah University with a Master's degree in Business Administration in 2013.
 
2021 SPRING SEASON IN REVIEW: In the three regular season meets during the abbreviated 2021 spring season, the DSU men posted one event victory, which came in the B-race at the UNLV Invitational back on Feb. 19.
 
That result was bookended by a sixth-place showing at the season-opening DSU Invitational held on Jan. 23 at Sand Hollow Resort in Hurricane, which marked the first time in program history that Dixie State had hosted a collegiate meet. The Trailblazers also raced to a fifth-place finish at the 2020-21 WAC Championships in Seattle.
 
Meanwhile, the DSU women started the year with a seventh-place showing at their home meet, which was followed by a season-best fourth-place result at UNLV, and a sixth-place finish at the WAC Championships.
 
2021 FALL ROSTER: The Trailblazer men return 10 runners and will welcome in three new harriers for the 2021 fall season. Junior Kevin Kirk headlines the returning class after he was DSU's top finisher in all three races last spring, highlighted by a fifth-place showing at UNLV with an 8K personal-best time of 25:30.2. Kirk also paced the Blazers with a 24^th-place finish at the WAC Championships.
 
In addition, junior Brian Schultz and sophomores Kallen Webster, Benjamin Fish and Sam Fish are back after the quartet was among DSU's top-five scoring runners at the WAC meet.
 
DSU's women return eight harriers from last year's team, led by junior Madison Flippence, who earned second team all-WAC honors after she placed 14^th at the conference meet. The junior was Dixie State's top runner in all three spring meets, which featured a season-best 6K time of 21:45 clocked at UNLV, where she placed 12^th-overall.
 
Along with Flippence (NCAA COVID waiver) freshmen Kirstin Williams, Jaylee Sorenson and Kali Richardson return, while DSU will have seven newcomers join the squad for the fall season.

HEAD COACH JUSTIN DECKER ON THE TRAILBLAZERS: "I'm very excited about the group of runners we have this year for both the men and the women, and I can't wait to get back to racing this week. Our athletes have been working very hard all summer to prepare for the season and this will be our first test to see where we stand racing against some high quality teams and what we need to focus on to continue to improve in the coming months."

UP NEXT: The Trailblazers will head back to Utah County to run at the BYU Autumn Classic, which will be held on Saturday, Sept. 11, at Timpanogos Golf Course (formerly East Bay GC).