CHAMPIONS: Cougars make history in sweep of cross country nationals

It was all Cougars in Wisconsin Saturday morning, as both the BYU men’s and women’s Cross Country teams proved running royalty resides in Provo, each capturing a National Championship. BYU became just the fifth team ever to sweep both the men’s and women's races, and the first team to do it since 2004, joining the likes of Colorado, Wisconsin, and Stanford twice.

In the women’s race, the Cougars were paced by senior Lexy Halladay-Lowry, who finished the 6,000 meter race in 11th place, with a time of 19:48.4. The steeplechase standout Halladay-Lowry had been more of a question mark coming into the race as she had been battling injuries for the past few weeks.

“I had something wrong with my hip and then after conference I couldn’t walk so we had to take nine days off completely – like no running,” Halladay-Lowry said. It was an incredibly heroic performance for the senior, who led the BYU women to their sixth national championship and second under head coach Diljeet Taylor.

The rest of the team maintained a tight pack, with the Cougars’ top five runners all finishing in the top 70 of the race. The Cougars employed a conservative strategy, as they did not lead until the 5k mark. But they quickly made their move and dominated the finish. Riley Chamberlain finished second for the Cougars in 31st, while the rest of their top five was Carmen Alder 39th, Taylor Rohatinsky 43rd, and Carlee Hansen 65th. 

In a sport where each team’s top five runners’ placements determine the points, this tight grouping was critical in allowing BYU to take home the hardware. Their 33.3 second spread between their top five runners was the smallest spread of all top ten teams. BYU finished with just 147 points, in front of second place West Virginia at 164, while Providence took third with 183.

While the BYU men typically run patiently like the women did, they were aggressive out of the gate en route to their second national championship in six years. With the race leaders setting a conservative pace, the Cougars were able to take advantage and led from start to finish throughout the 10,000 meter race. They were paced by sixth place finisher Casey Clinger, who clocked in a time of 28:45.1, just .2 seconds shy of fifth place. 

BYU placed all of their top five runners in the top 50, which was essential in holding off a late surge from Iowa State, who also placed five in the top 50. The Cougs took down the Cyclones by a margin of 124-137, while Arkansas took third with 202.

Creed Thompson wasn’t much far behind Clinger in 12th place, while Joey Nokes (31st), Lucas Bons (39th), and Davin Thompson (50th) rounded out their top five. Steeplechase champion and 2024 Olympian James Corrigan took 62nd, while senior Aidan Troutner took 79th to finish things out for the Cougars.

Head Coach Ed Eyestone credited the BYU women for getting things started to set up the sweep. “Our women did a wonderful job. They set the table for us.”

The two championships cemented BYU as the leading national power in distance running, giving BYU cross country their 3rd and 4th national titles since 2019.

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