BYU men place third in NCAA Cross Country Championships

Led by Casey Clinger’s seventh-place end, BYU positioned third in the NCAA Cross Country Championships Saturday in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

The Cougars had moved into second place late in the race, simply three factors behind Northern Arizona, however over the ultimate 1,000 meters of the ten,000-meter race they pale.

Northern Arizona received the championship for the sixth time in seven years (BYU broke NAU’s streak by winning the title in 2019). NAU and host-school Oklahoma State really completed in an 83-83 tie, however NAU was awarded the title based mostly on a tiebreaker. BYU had 132 factors.

In the ladies’s race, BYU completed eighth and Utah twelfth. North Carolina State received the workforce championship for the second consecutive yr, led by sophomore famous person Katelyn Tuohy’s win in the person race.

This marked the fourth time in six years that the BYU men completed on the rostrum (prime 4), together with their 2019 NCAA championship. For solely the second time in BYU historical past, 4 people earned cross-country All-American honors (prime 40) — Clinger (seventh), Brandon Garnica (twenty first), Davin Thompson (thirtieth) and Creed Thompson (thirty fifth). Clinger, a senior from American Fork, earned his fourth All-American award in cross-country, having completed twenty fourth, thirteenth, eighth and now seventh in this race, respectively.

“I’m feeling really good about our performance,” mentioned Eyestone. “We put ourselves in position to challenge for the win. That’s what you hope for. We just dropped a few places over the last little bit. If they had scored the top seven runners, we probably would’ve won. I’m super happy with the effort.”

The Cougars positioned 5 runners in the highest 47 — and all seven of their runners completed in the highest 52 of the 254-man race. No different workforce got here near doing that, however solely the highest 5 runners depend for workforce scoring (no different workforce positioned its seventh runner in the highest 90). All seven of BYU’s runners graduated from Utah high schools.

The men’s race was received by Stanford’s Charles Hicks, who pulled away from NAU’s Nico Young and Drew Bosley in the ultimate 1K of the race. In chilly 31-degree temperatures, he coated the hilly 10,000-meter course in 28:43.6. Hicks, Young and Bosley made a break early in the race and have been by no means challenged. Clinger and Garnica ran in the chase pack your entire race.

“Casey decided to key off Oklahoma State’s Alex Maier because he had been running well and knows the course,” mentioned Eyestone. “After the race … maybe he should’ve gone with those (lead) guys.”

Tuohy, essentially the most adorned highschool cross-country runner ever, really trailed many of the girls’s race. Florida’s Parker Valby made an early break from the sector making an attempt to flee Tuohy’s well-known late-race kick. She held a 12-second lead over the chase pack on the 5K mark of the 6,000-meter race, however moments later Tuohy made the break and began to reel in Valby. She caught her on a hill on the 5.4K mark and pulled away, crossing the end line in 19:27.7, about three seconds forward of Valby.

Utah’s Emily Venters, a senior from Kansas, completed twelfth and teammate Simon Plourde forty fifth to offer the Utes their highest workforce end ever — twelfth. It marked the fourth time in seven years the Utes completed in the highest 20. Their earlier finest was a Sixteenth-place end in 2019.

BYU’s eighth-place end in the ladies’s competitors marked the sixth consecutive yr the Cougars have completed in the highest 10. They had completed second, first and second in the earlier three races, respectively. Aubrey Frentheway completed thirty second in the 254-woman subject and teammate Lexy Halladay was thirty fourth.

Utah Valley’s Everlyn Kemboi, a senior from Kenya, was nineteenth.

Utah State completed twenty sixth in the men’s workforce competitors.

Matthew Norton, BYU Photo