CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Sept. 4, 2026) – The Wyoming Cowgirl cross country team won the Wyoming Invite behind a first-place finish from senior Eowyn Dalbec while the Cowboys finished second as freshman Habtamu Wetzel crossed the line first, Friday evening in Cheyenne, Wyo.

COWGIRLS
On the women's side, Wyoming broke Colorado State's 7-year run of winning the meet when all five Cowgirl scorers finished in the top eight. They finished 1-5-6-7-8 for 15 points and an average mile pace of 5:56. CSU placed second with 48 points and Northern Colorado with 81 while Colorado and Central Wyoming College finished without a scoring five.

Leading the way, and by a far margin, Dalbec improved by 73 seconds from her unattached time a year ago. She was one of only two runners to finish under 18 minutes at 17:37.97.

On Dalbec's performance, Head Coach Scott Dahberg said, "She has been preparing on another level, so to show up on a race day and prove it to herself was a big thing."

After finishes from two Colorado runners and former Cowgirl Marina Trave running unattached, junior Muriel Jones crossed the line fifth. Her time of 18:32.08 earned the team two points.

After leading the Cowgirls at last year's Wyoming Invite, sophomore Claire Engelhardt took sixth overall with a time of 18:34.61. She was followed by senior Hailey Uhre, returning from her redshirt year. She placed seventh with a time of 18:38.31.

Junior Hanan Aldelemy secured the perfect score of 15 for the Cowgirls with her time of 18:44.45 for eighth. She had to fight off a CSU ram for her finish, crossing the line just over a second after Aldelemy.

Other notable finishers for Wyoming were junior Brionna Holso with a time of 18:50.2 for 10th and junior transfer Sydney Morrell in 13th at 19:01.9. Full women's results can be found here.

For the women overall, Dahlberg said, "The biggest goal going in was to win. We knew they could, but now they know they can, and that's going to mean a lot."

COWBOYS
In his first meet wearing the Brown and Gold, Wetzel took home an individual victory with a time of 15:15.49.

Dahlberg said, "He's been a good, healthy amount of confident this season. You can just tell he is operating at another level that has been really fun to watch at practice."

In what was like his own personal Border War, Wetzel, from Afton, Wyo., had to run among several CSU rams for most of the race before separating from the pack and taking the win by over 10 seconds.

"For him {Wetzel} to come out and prove it to himself and be able to win that race against some pretty good guys was really fun to watch," said Dahlberg.

Transfer junior Anton Martinez crossed the line next for Wyoming with a time of 15:49.67. His 11th-place finish gave the Cowboys 10 points. Junior Austin Akers finished next in 12th with a time of 15:51.60.

Freshman Owen Conely came out hot and led for some of the race before falling to 16th and scoring 14 points. He crossed the line at 16:05.65

Rounding out the scoring five was senior Aidan Ramsey, the only returner from last year's Mountain West Championship scorers. He finished with a time of 16:12.37 for 19th overall.

The Cowboys would finish second, going 1-10-11-16-19 with 52 points and an average mile pace of 5:06.

Other notable finishers were freshman Owen Thiel with a time of 16:13.2 for 20th and freshman Gideon Moore coming in 23rd with a time of 16:33.35. Full men's results can be found here.

UP NEXT
Pokes look ahead to Sept. 25 when they return to Columbia, Mo., to run at the Gans Creek Classic, hosted by Missouri. Last season, Wyoming raced on the state-of-the-art cross country course during the Pre Nationals meet where six posted then personal-best times.

Stay up to date with Wyoming cross country by following @wyo_track on X and Instagram.