OREM, Utah - No. 9 BYU Men’s Cross Country opens the 2026 season at Scera Park in the Utah Valley Invitational on Friday. The 3-mile race will begin at 10:45 a.m. MDT.
It is the first time the team will compete on the 3-mile course at Scera Park. The men last ran in the Utah Valley Invitational in 2022, when the race was still being held on the 5,000-meter course.
The Cougars are looking to start their season with a victory for the sixth season in a row as the team has won 18 of its last 20 season openers under head coach Ed Eyestone.
Date: Friday, Sept. 4
Time: 10:45 a.m. MDT
Course: Scera Park
BYU returns four of its five scorers from last year’s NCAA Championships, including top scorer and projected leader Tayvon Kitchen, an All-American his freshman season. Olympian James Corrigan, junior Noah Jenkins and junior Max Davis round out the pool of returning scorers from last year’s team.
Junior Isaac Hedengren also projects to be in the team’s top seven after an eighth-place finish in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships in June earned him First-Team All-American honors. Fellow junior and track national champion Carter Cutting, who owns the school record in the indoor mile, will also compete for a spot in the team’s top seven.
Alongside an impressive group of returners, Eyestone and assistant coach Ryan Waite bring in a talented group of freshmen headlined by Malachi Schoenherr and Danny Simmons. Schoenherr was a five-time All-American and Simmons was a two-time Gatorade National Player of the Year before serving a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
After Friday’s race, the Cougars will head to Terre Haute, Indiana, on Sept. 19 to compete in the John McNichols Invitational.