2013 BYU Hall of Fame
With the 2001 NCAA Cross Country Championships returning to Greenville, South Carolina, the site of BYU's first cross country national title in 1997, the scene was set for history to repeat itself.
The Cougars were led by two-time All-American Tara Northcutt, who had been BYU’s top runner in each race she had entered during the 2001 season. BYU returned four athletes from a 2000 team that finished second in the nation, and were bolstered by the addition of two talented transfers, Michaela Mannova and Jessie Kindschi.
The Cougars arrived in South Carolina looking to unseat top-ranked Stanford, the only team BYU had not beaten during the regular season.
But the much anticipated match up between No.1 Stanford and No. 2 BYU never materialized as the Cougars scored an amazing 62 points to defeat runner-up North Carolina State by 86 points, claiming one of the largest winning margins in NCAA history.
Mannova led BYU with a fifth-place finish, followed by Kindschi in seventh and Northcutt in ninth. Lindsey Thomsen and Sarah Taylor finished 23rd and 24th, while Nan Evans placed 36th, giving the Cougars six All-Americans.
The 2001 National Championship was the Cougars seventh-straight top-four finish and third national title in five years. The team’s performance demonstrated once again that the BYU women’s team had become a national powerhouse in collegiate cross country.