SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Junior Jonathan Nelson led No. 10 BYU to a second-place finish at the Notre Dame Invitational Friday at Notre Dame Golf Course in South Bend, Indiana.
"I think our team performed very well," head coach Ed Eyestone said. "We came into this meet hoping to beat a number of teams from other regions to give us some at-large points and we did just that. We beat a lot of great teams, inlcuding all of the teams from our region."
The Cougars scored 112 points, placing them behind No. 19 Michigan, who won the meet with 97 points. BYU held off ranked opponents New Mexico, North Carolina State, Tulsa, Princeton, Eastern Kentucky and Florida State in the field of 24 teams.
Nelson's time of 23:33.0 on the five-mile course placed him first among BYU runners and 10th overall. The Provo native's performance made him the first BYU finisher for the second time this season and the third time of his career.
"He (Nelson) ran a great race," Eyestone said. "He finished tenth in a fairly conservative effort. He worked from a decent position and chipped away toward the lead throughout the race."
Senior Spencer Gardner finished seven seconds behind Nelson (23:40.1), good for second on the team and 14th overall. Gardner has placed in BYU's top three in all three meets this season. Connor McMillan, Mitchell Briggs and Conner Peloquin rounded out the scoring for the Cougars and finished 27th, 28th, and 33rd overall, respectively.
Complete race results can be found here.
BYU next races Oct. 17 at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin.