NCAA cross country: BYU men, women sweep Mountain regional ahead of national meet

PROVO — BYU women's cross country probably didn't need to finish first at the NCAA Mountain regional Friday in Reno, Nevada.

But Riley Chamberlain and the top-ranked Cougars seem to only know one gear.

Chamberlain finished fifth overall in 19 minutes, 56.4 seconds, and BYU placed four runners in the top 10 to pull past second-place Northern Arizona by 13 points at Washoe County Golf Course in Reno, Nevada.

Carmen Alder finished eighth in 19:57.8, Taylor Rohatinsky was ninth in 20:05.6, and Taylor Lovell added a 10th-place finish in 20:09.2 for BYU, which doubled the next closest teams — the fourth-ranked Lumberjacks (65) and third-place New Mexico (111) — with the number of top-10 finishers.

Carlee Hansen rounded out the scoring for BYU in 20:15.1 for 20th overall to clinch the Cougars' 10th consecutive appearance at the cross county championships.

The BYU men's teams also captured top regional honors with 52 points, holding off second-place New Mexico by nine.

The top two teams in each of the NCAA's nine regionals automatically qualified for the national championships, which will be held Nov. 23 in Madison, Wisconsin.

The NCAA Division I cross country subcommittee will then select 13 at-large teams to fill out the 31-team field, so BYU's standing as the No. 1-ranked team in the country by the coaches' association probably made the Cougars pretty clear to advance to nationals — which helped the team sit top runner Lexy Halladay-Lowry on Friday.

New Mexico's Pamela Kosgei and Texas Tech's Juliet Cherubet battled nearly stride-for-stride through most of the six-kilometer race. But Kosgei pulled ahead down the stretch to finish first overall in 19:30.9, roughly 14 seconds ahead of Cherubet.

Erin Vringer finished 11th in 20:11.9 to pace Utah, which added Annastasia Peters' 13th-place run in 20:12.1 en route to 122 points and a fourth-place finish.

Utah Valley was fifth with two top-30 runners in Caila Odekirk (No. 24, 20:17.7) and reigning Western Athletic Conference individual champion Anna Martin (28th, 20:28.0).

BYU wasn't done with one regional title, though.

Casey Clinger finished fourth in 29:24.9, and Creed Thompson added a sixth-place mark in 29:27.1 as the Big 12 champion BYU men's team took four of the top-nine places to pull past the Lobos and third-place Norther Arizona (71 points) while battling cold and infringing snowy conditions in Reno.

The Cougars also raced shorthanded, holding out U.S. Olympic steeplechase athlete James Corrigan and Lucas Bons, who finished in the top-12 at the Big 12 championships.

But paced by Clinger and Thompson, the Cougars made a big push. They started as far back as fifth early in 10-kilometer race, with Clinger leading a pack of Cougars on the edges of the top-30 while Texas Tech's Solomon Kipchoge set a fast pace.

Clinger moved all the way up to eighth with about 1,500 meters to go, bringing Davin Thompson and Joey Nokes with him and just behind Creed Thompson before a final push led him to a fourth-place finish.

Davin Thompson finished eighth in 29:29.4, and Nokes was ninth in 29:33.6. Luke Grundvig rounded out the Cougars' scoring with a 25th-place time of 29:53.6.

"The approach today was to run it like a preliminary heat in track," BYU assistant coach Ryan Waite said in a news release. "The guys were patient, didn't go with early moves and then closed well. Luke Grundvig, who was our fifth man, closed really well to secure a team win. Now it's just about recovery to be ready for eight days from now."

Utah State didn't clinch one of two automatic bids, but likely booked an at-large berth with a fourth-place finish of 152 points.

"It will become official tomorrow" said Utah State director of track & field and cross country Artie Gulden, "but the men will be racing at the NCAA championships next week."

Camren Todd ran a 14th-place time of 29:39.8 to lead the Aggies, who ranked eighth in the most recent NCAA Division I cross country mountain regional poll, and as high as No. 19 nationally — their highest in three years — before placing sixth at the Mountain West championships two weeks ago.

Weber State's Peter Visser finished 14th in 29:39.8, Southern Utah's Santiago Gaitan was 20th in 29:44.3, and Utah Valley's Mohamed Guled — the reigning WAC champion — came in 22nd in 29:49.2.

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