AT THE GAMES — Three-time Footlocker All-American at Sky View High, two-time NCAA champion at BYU, and now one of the 10 best marathoners in the world.

And Conner Mantz was going to check the latest box with former BYU teammate Clayton Young next to him.

The American marathoners finished in the top 10 of the men's marathon at the Paris Summer Games, with Mantz taking eighth in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 12 seconds, and Young right behind him in ninth in 2:08:44 at the Invalides in the French capital.

It's the first time two American marathoners finished in the top 10 of an Olympic race since 2016.

With more than 50 family and friends awaiting them at the finish line, including Mantz's wife, Kylie, and Young's wife, Ashley, as well as BYU coach Ed Eyestone, the duo then welcomed the runners behind them over the finish line with the iconic Esplanade des Invalides in the background.

"It was an amazing day," said Ed Eyestone, who was in Paris with his two star athletes. "There was a lot of guts shown by both of them. It's amazing to see them finish in the single digits. To place in the top-nine in the Olympic Games is a pretty great accomplishment, when you consider the marathon and all that can go wrong."

Both times were season bests for two of the top Utah high school prep runners who ran together for much of their college careers and finished seconds apart at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in Orlando, Florida.

At one point, the duo even slapped palms, with Mantz reaching back to Young as if to say, "We got this" (again) — like the Run Elite Program athletes have done for years.

"During this part of the race I was frustrated to hear another athlete catch up to the pack," the 27-year-old Mantz later wrote on Instagram of the interaction, "but so excited when it was Clayton. Keep your friends close."

Ethiopia's Tamirat Tola won the gold medal in an Olympic record time of 2:06:26. Belgium's Bashir Abdi was 21 seconds back for second in a season-best 2:06:47, and Kenya's Benson Kipruto claimed bronze in 2:07:00.

Tola is the first non-Kenyan to win the Olympic marathon since Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda won in London in 2012.

Former Southern Utah distance runner Cameron Levins ran a season-best 2:11:56 for 36th place while representing Canada, and former BYU athlete Rory Linkletter — a Herriman High grad — added a 47th-place finish for the Canadians in 2:13:09.

"Today was a beautiful day," Linkletter said. "I'm so proud to have competed here and given it everything I had today. My result is one I am not ashamed of, but certainly not one I believe illustrates my capabilities. This year has been a dream, but it has also been full of mountains to climb. I've been here before, I'll probably be here again."

In a race where five of the six qualifiers from the Western Hemisphere came through the state of Utah for high school, college or bother, Mantz opted to run the race from the front.

The Logan native who grew up in Smithfield was in fifth place in 15:41 through the first five kilometers, with former American Fork standout Young, 30, was 16th in 15:42 in the earliest marker of the 42.2-kilometer (26.2 miles) race.

Mantz ran among the leaders through 10 kilometers in 30:59, with Young — his former BYU teammate and team captain — seconds behind him in 22nd. The duo dropped 26-27 seconds behind the leader through 15 kilometers, just before the largest uphill scale of the 42.2-kilometer course that stretched from Paris' Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) to Les Invalides with sudden elevation changes.

Mantz was back in second around the halfway mark, running in 1:04:52 and just a second behind Ethiopia's Tola and eight seconds ahead of Young, who won an NCAA championship in the 10,000 meters.

Tola began to pull ahead leading up to the 30-kilometer mark — on a steep incline that graded as high as 10%, according to NBC broadcasters — in 1:31:12. Mantz was 30 seconds back in 10th, and Young 11 seconds behind Mantz in 13th through the stretch.

"There's always a little bit of a fire to want to do better," Young said after the race. "But there will be more opportunities. We're young. This is our first Olympics. We have time. We have each other. We have a whole support community that has gotten us here and I think that is going to carry us far. This experience was priceless."

The Ethiopian stretched his lead to 18 seconds through 35 kilometers, with Mantz and Young a minute back in 10th and 11th, respectively. The former BYU teammates who both train professionally with Eyestone and Utah's Run Elite Program clawed back into the top 10 ahead of the final stretch, 1:32 and 1:51 behind Tola's incredible pace in eighth and ninth place as the friends finished just 32 seconds apart.

"I thought they ran a really controlled race," Eyestone added. "It was a really solid day for both of them."

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