BYU men, women sweep Big 12 cross country championships

PROVO — The top-ranked BYU women's cross country team has added a victory lap in its second season in the Big 12 Conference.

But the Cougars weren't done with that.

Led by Lexy Halladay-Lowry's fifth-place finish in 19 minutes, 50.5 seconds, BYU placed all five of its scoring runners in the top 13 to cruise to first place at the Big 12 championships Friday morning at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course in Waco, Texas.

In the second race of the day, Casey Clinger finished third overall in 22:08.2 in the men's 8K race and BYU placed six runners in the top 15 to stun top-ranked Oklahoma State to claim their first Big 12 team championship.

The Cougars become the fourth team to sweep both championships in Big 12 history, joining Colorado (11 times), Iowa State (twice) and Oklahoma State most recently for a third time in 2022.

Olympic steeplechaser James Corrigan finished seventh in 22:29.7, and Joey Nokes with eighth in 22:30.2. Creed Thompson (22:37.1) and Lucas Bons (22:37.1) rounded out BYU's team scoring in 11th and 12th, respectively. Davin Thompson, whose finish didn't count for scoring except in tiebreaker scenarios as BYU's sixth finisher, was 15th in 22:51.5.

"We knew Oklahoma State has some amazing talent," BYU coach Ed Eyestone told ESPN+ after the race. "My hope was maybe putting some bodies up there with them, they wouldn't go through 10 like they are used to. I think we did a good job putting pressure on them early.

"For a while, we had a lot of orange in front of us. But they didn't give up; they took heart. ... They knew this was an 8K race, not a 6K race."

The BYU women used a similar tactic to capture a second consecutive conference title in the Cougars' second year in the Big 12.

Behind Halladay-Lowry, a senior from Meridian-Idaho who placed fourth in the event a year ago, junior Riley Chamberlain was sixth in 19:54.27 and junior Taylor Rohatinsky seventh in 19:55.29.

Carmen Alder added a top-10 finish for the Cougars, placing 10th in 19:58.71, and Destiny Everett took 13th in 19:59.56. The Cougars placed all seven of their official runners inside the top 25, including Carlee Hansen in 20th (20:08.36) and Anastaysia Davis in 23rd (20:17.85).

"We've had an interesting last 48 hours," BYU coach Diljeet Taylor told ESPN+ after the race. "I think the mindset was just 'embrace the imperfect.' The race wasn't going to be perfect, so just embrace the race plan and stick together.

"Championship season brings out all kinds of adversity," she added. "What I'm proud of is they found a way to come out and fight for reach other. That's the big win of the day ... Yes, a conference title was great. But the big win is they got stronger through what they had to deal with to get that win."

In a race with four of the top 18 teams in the country including No. 1 BYU, which won the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals with 105 points to Washington's 157 and Northern Arizona's 165, No. 4 West Virginia was second with 60 points, followed by No. 6 Utah with 86 points and No. 18 Oklahoma State with 103.

Erin Vringer paced the Utes with an eighth-place time of 19:56.48, and Mckaylie Caesar was 11th in 19:58.96.

West Virginia's Ceili McCabe won her third Big 12 individual championship title in a personal-best time of 19:02.60 and teammate Joy Naukot was third in 19:18.09. Texas Tech's Juliet Cherubet finished between the two Mountaineers in 19:16.84 in the women's 6K event.

The top-15 runners Friday were named All-Big 12 athletes, which include the following from the women's race:

1. Ceili McCabe, West Virginia — 19:02.60
2. Juliet Cherubet, Texas Tech — 19:16.84
3. Joy Naukot, West Virginia — 18:18.09
4. Judy Chepkoech, Arizona State — 19:32.54
5. Lexy Halladay-Lowry, BYU — 19:50.43
6. Riley Chamberlain, BYU — 19:64.27
7. Taylor Rohatinsky, BYU — 19:55.29
8. Erin Vringer, Utah — 19:56.48
9. Maelle Porcher, Iowa State — 19:58.18
10. Carmen Alder, BYU — 19:58.71
11. Mckaylie Caesar, Utah — 19:58.96
12. Sarah Tait, West Virginia — 19:59.27
13. Destiny Everett, BYU — 19:59.56
14. Josphine Mwaura, Oklahoma State — 20:01.96
15. Sivan Auerbach, Oklahoma State — 20:03.23

The men's top-15 finished as follows:

1. Brian Musau, Oklahoma State — 22:07.0
2. Solomon Kipchoge, Texas Tech — 22:08.5
3. Casey Clinger, BYU — 22:09.2
4. Robin Kwemoi Bera, Iowa State — 22:16.7
5. Ernest Cheruiyot, Texas Tech — 22:25.8
6. Denis Kipongetich, Oklahoma State — 22:29.20
7. James Corrigan, BYU — 22:29.65
8. Joey Nokes, BYU — 22:30.18
9. Victor Shitsama, Oklahoma State — 22:30.99
10. Said Mechaal, Iowa State — 22:35.51
11. Creed Thompson, BYU — 22:37.04
12. Lucas Bons, BYU — 22:37.06
13. Joash Ruto, Iowa State — 22:43.72
14. Sanele Masondo, Iowa State — 22:51.15
15. Davin Thompson, BYU — 22:51.50

Both BYU teams now look ahead to the NCAA mountain regional, which will be held Friday, Nov. 15 at Washoe County Golf Course in Reno, Nevada.

UVU women repeat as WAC champs with perfect score

Anna Martin won the Western Athletic Conference 6K title in 19:51.49 as Utah Valley repeated as conference champions with a perfect score of 15 points Friday at Lakeside Park in Orem.

Ari Trimble finished second for UVU in 20:00.10, followed by Carla Odekirk in third (20:07.90), Oakley Olson in fourth (20:22.92) and Julie Sumsion in fifth (20:25.60).

"They've done a really good job all year long of working together and helping each other and our number one has switched out a little, so I knew we'd run as a group but I didn't know that we'd end up with a perfect score," UVU coach Scott Houle said.

Mo Guled won the individual men's title for Utah Valley, which finished third in the men's 8K race behind No. 14 California Baptist.

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