The 2001 men's cross country team will be looking to continue its two-year trend of improving upon the previous year's finish at nationals. The past two seasons the team has qualified for the NCAA Championships and the team's 23rd place finish in 2000 was an improvement on the 1999 finish.
Ed Eyestone, in his second year as head coach, will lead a solid nucleus of returning letterman, led by All-American John Hedengren, and some top freshman coming to the team. The team is poised to repeat as conference champions for the fifth consecutive year. Hedengren, last year's Mountain West Conference runner-up, will be looking to reclaim the conference title he earned in 1999. Andy Carman and Lewis Jones also finished in the top five for the team at last year's NCAA Championships. With Ben Wynn on the roster, BYU returns four of the runners on last year's team that finished 23rd in the nation.
The team will be trying to replace the loss of talented freshmen Josh Rohatinsky and Golden Harper to LDS church missions. Ty Jensen and Mark Nevers are two top recruits who will be expected to contribute to the squad early and help fill the holes left by the departure of Rohatinsky and Harper for the next two years.
The Cougars open the 2001 season at home, running in the BYU Triple Crown. Several top teams from around the country, including Arizona, Minnesota and Weber State, will give BYU have an early season look at how their team matches up against some of the other top schools in the nation.
Coach Eyestone and the Cougars will be looking to continue their steady climb to the top of the nation in the 2001 season.