EUGENE -- At the Bill Dellinger Invitational, where second through fifth place was determined by less than 15 points, the No. 18-ranked BYU women's cross country team finished fifth.
Six top-25 teams made the trip to Eugene, Ore., for the meet, with host Oregon winning. Arkansas, ranked No. 4 nationally, came in second place with No. 17 Washington and No. 21 Colorado State finishing in third and fourth, respectively.
"We ran a notably better race than we did three weeks ago at the Autumn Classic," said BYU coach Patrick Shane of the Cougars' second-place finish in a race with far less talent than that of the Dellinger Invitational. "We did a better job running as a team, and our groupings were much better."
The Cougars were led by sophomore Katie Bowen who placed fifth overall with a 6K time of 20:31. Freshman Angela Wagner wasn't far behind with a time of 20:33, good for seventh place.
"We could've started off a little faster but we got boxed in a little bit at the beginning," Wagner said. "But overall, I was really happy with the race."
Rounding out the top five for the Cougars were junior Amber Duffin (29th overall), junior Amy Fowler Layne (30th) and senior Jenna Jensen (33rd). Duffin and Layne ran identical times of 21:06, with Jensen completing the race in 21:12.
The Cougars will be in action again at Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind., on Oct. 13.
Team Scoring
PLACE TEAM POINTS PLACES OF FINISHERS
1 Oregon 65 1, 3, 8, 21, 32, 39, 45
2 Arkansas 90 10, 11, 15, 19, 35, 36, 46
3 Washington 93 2, 6, 13, 22, 50, 53, 64
4 Colorado St. 95 4, 9, 23, 28, 31, 34, 51
5 BYU 104 5, 7, 29, 30, 33, 37, 43
5. BYU
5 Katie Bowen 20:31
7 Angela Wagner 20:33
29 Amber Duffin 21:06
30 Amy Fowler-Layne 21:06
33 Jenna Jensen 21:12
37 Cecily Lemmon 21:16
43 Tawny Bybee 21:21
47 Anna Sperry 21:22
68 Angela Petersen 21:37
85 Stacy Slight 21:52
91 Carolyn Quebe 21:56
110 Wendy Harris 22:18