LOGAN, Utah (Oct. 5, 2018) – Clayton Young and Kate Hunter won their respective races to lead both BYU cross country teams to first-place finishes at Utah State University’s Steve T. Reeder Memorial on Friday.
The No. 9 BYU women’s team nearly swept the competition enroute to a dominant 19-point performance. The Cougars defeated Utah State (42), the University of Utah (93), College of Idaho (99) and Westminster (132).
“I was really happy with the way our girls took the lead from the very start of the race,” BYU associate head women’s coach Diljeet Taylor said. “They raced very confident and worked well together.”
Hunter led the way for BYU, winning the women's 5k and the first cross country race of her collegiate career (18:10.2). Rachel Morrin (18:20.55), Amanda Erickson (18:28.80), Allie Warner (18:34.70) and Britney Lund (18:36.47) finished 3 through 6 for the Cougars.
“Each of those girls had been running well in practice,” Taylor said. “It was just a matter of whose day it was going to be, and Kate obviously had the best day racing.”
The No. 2 BYU men’s team took first with a perfect score of 15 points, the second time they’ve swept the top-five scoring positions this season. The Cougars won comfortably with Utah State taking second (46), College of Idaho placing third (62) and Westminster finishing fourth (105).
Young looked to be in good form in his 2018 debut, winning the men’s 7k with a time of 21:04.6. Teammates Dallin Farnsworth (21:14.8), Brandon Garnica (21:21.2), Michael Ottesen (21:29.2) and Porter Reddish (21:41:4) rounded out the top-five finishers of the race in uniform.
“The men looked really good and had a good pack right from the start of the race,” Taylor said. “Clayton Young cruised at a nice pace and looked in control. He’s going to race next week at Pre-Nationals so this was more of a rust-buster for him.”
The BYU men’s and women’s cross country teams rested most of their top runners this week and will be back at full strength next week at the Pre-Nationals Invitational at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wisconsin, on Saturday, Oct. 13.