Onward to nationals: cross country takes care of business at Mountain Regional

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The BYU men’s and women’s cross country programs are one step closer to competing at the NCAA National Championships after strong performances at the NCAA Mountain Regional at UNM North Golf Course on Friday.

FULL RESULTS

*Photo Credit: Mike Sandoval

Men’s Recap

The No. 2 Cougars cruised to a second-place finish as the team registered 54 total points. BYU’s top four runners finished in the top 13 and within nine seconds of one another.

Brandon Garnica led the way, jumping nine spots from 14th to fifth in the race’s final half to cross the line at 28:08.1. Three-time All-American Casey Clinger covered the 8,000-meter course just 0.3 seconds behind Garnica, good for sixth at 28:08.4. The top three was rounded out by eighth-place finisher Joey Nokes.

"Overall, we did what we wanted to today," said BYU men's cross country head coach Ed Eyestone. "We're setting ourselves up to hopefully be able to run at one hundred-percent in eight days at the national meet. We feel that as long as we can work on recovery, we'll be in a good position to battle with Stanford, Northern Arizona, and Oklahoma State next week."

Graduate transfer Christian Allen registered a 28:17.2 time to finish 13th in his fourth Mountain Regional appearance and first with the Cougars. Kenneth Rooks placed 22nd in his first NCAA Regionals action.

The Cougars topped five nationally ranked opponents in today’s victory, including No. 5 Air Force and No. 9 Colorado. This came despite the absence of key contributors Davin Thompson, Creed Thompson and Aidan Troutner.

With the win, the Cougars received one of two automatic qualifying bids from the Mountain Region to the NCAA Division I National Championships held Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Nov. 19. The Mountain Regional is one of nine regional cross country meets held throughout the country today.

Nationals will be broadcast live on ESPNU with the men's 10k beginning at 10:10 a.m. CST.

Women's Recap

Aubrey Frentheway and Lexy Halladay-Lowry led No. 6 BYU to a sixth-place (144 points) finish at regionals. Both runners crossed at 20:04.9 with Frentheway taking third and Halladay-Lowry fourth. Frentheway started strong and remained in the top-3 throughout the women’s 6,000-meter race. Halladay-Lowry lingered in the front-15 over through the first 2,200 meters before surging into the eighth over the back half of the course.

Carmen Alder took 30th while Addi Bruening and Lindsey Stallworth came in together at 55th and 56th, respectively. At 21:16.3, Stallworth recorded her best 6k time of the season. Madi Moffitt and Riley Chamberlain rounded out BYU’s runners in Albuquerque.

With a sixth-place finish at the Mountain Regional, the Cougars now await one of 13 at-large selections to the 31-team NCAA Division I Cross Country National Championships held at Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Nov. 19.

The NCAA Division I Cross Country Subcommittee will announce at-large bids during its selection show on Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. EST. The selection show can be streamed live on NCAA.com.