Montana State honors standout harriers

[Colter_Nuanez]

 
MSU SPORTS INFORMATION
 
The Montana State cross country team presented its 2012 individual awards on Monday and three different Bobcats reaped the benefits of their hard work. The coaching staff doled out their traditional awards of Top Gun and Most Improved to the deserving male and female student-athletes who best exemplified the honors. The Top Gun award is given to the runner who accumulated the lowest power score from their races.
 
Heather Demorest received both the Top Gun and Most Improved awards for the women’s program. Demorest, a Darby native, ran in the first position in every meet of the season. Notably, she placed 16th at this season’s Big Sky Conference Championship and was the top-scoring finisher at the Montana Invitational in Missoula.
 
In each of her five races, Demorest either matched or bettered her performances from the 2011 season. She jumped from 19th to sixth at the Bozeman Running Company Invitational in one year, as well as a 37th place finish at the NCAA Mountain Regional (she placed 58th in 2011).
 
Michael Asay was named the men’s Top Gun recipient after finishing with the best power score of 2.2 among the team. The Manhattan native began the season at the No. 4 position, moved up to No. 2 at the second meet and eventually ran the first position at both the Big Sky Championship and the NCAA Mountain Regional. Asay came in 10th place at the Big Sky Championship and earned his all-conference honors at his first cross country conference championship.
 
For the Most Improved, Seth Garbett took the honors. The junior who also hails from Darby, saw huge jumps from 2011 to 2012 in his races. After coming in 98th at the 2011 Mountain Regional, he came in 46th this season and also jumped from 30th to 19th at the Big Sky meet in October.
 
“All of our runners have a lot to be proud of this season, but these three in particular really stepped up their game this fall,” said head coach Dale Kennedy. “All three not only had big seasons but made huge strides, literally, from their previous seasons.”
 
Montana State closed out the 2012 on Nov. 9 when they competed at the NCAA Mountain Region Championship.
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