Long Waits Over For Arkansas Women, BYU Men At NCAAs

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

TERRE HAUTE -- Venerated college distance running coaches Ed Eyestone and Lance Harter tasted victory at the NCAA Cross Country Championships after many years of trying on a cold, wet day at LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course on Saturday. 

Eyestone's BYU Cougars pulled off one of the biggest upsets at the NCAA meet, ending Northern Arizona's three-year run of supremacy. BYU, led by Conner Mantz's third-place finish, scored 109 points. NAU, a heavy pre-race favorite, scored 163 points after getting out to a sluggish start. 

"We were hoping to match what the women did, but the guys stepped up and we finally pulled it off," Eyestone said.

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The Cougars have been near the top the previous couple of years but never put it together the way they did on Saturday. BYU was third in 2017 and second last year.

"This time we just said 'Hey, we do it at Pre-Nats, we do it in the regular season, we do it at the conference meet. Let's just step up and do it at nationals. It's just another meet," said Eyestone, who has been at the helm of the men's program since 2000 and won the 1984 individual title when he attended BYU.

Arkansas, ranked No. 1 all season, was pushed by BYU but held on for a six-point victory, 96-102, to claim the first women's cross country crown. The Razorbacks now hold all three NCAA titles in the sport after previous wins at the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor track and field championships in 2019. 

Individually, New Mexico's Weini Kelati made a decisive move at the mid-point of the women's 6K race and won it in 19:47.5. She had a 10-second margin over Wisconsin's runner-up Alicia Monson. 

“It doesn’t matter what pace, how fast, I just want to be there and win the race," Kelati said. "That was the whole goal.

“I wasn’t planning to get away, but I was trying to find a place that I couldn’t get chipped or blocked out. So, I saw it and I was like the risk is kinda crazy, but I didn’t know how far I can go like this. So, I decided to wait a little bit and then I was like I kinda feel pretty good and I was like why not just try the risk and I tried to pull away from everyone else.”

Arkansas duo Katie Izzo and Taylor Werner finished third and fourth. A year ago, they were 81st and 82nd.

"I'm so in shock right now, it's insane," Werner said. "We're going to eat a lot of chocolate. A lot of chocolate."

Harter, the coach of the Arkansas women for 30 years, had finished second on four different occasions. 

“This is the crowning achievement,” Harter told Arkansas sports information. “They just followed the race plan perfectly. This is always a treasure for a coach because most of the time they don’t listen, but they did at the regional meet and carried it to the national meet.

“I knew we were going to finish strong. Katie and Taylor are both just so tough if someone is going to get by them, they have to be extra special. Devin (Clark) and Carina (Viljoen) have good leg speed, so once they have to start matching people, usually nine times out of 10 the result will be positive. The one that really did a fantastic job and sacrificed her redshirt season for this team was Lauren (Gregory). Once she said, ‘Hey we’re going to go for it,’ it just made everyone accountable.”

BYU's women, led by a 5-6-7 finish for Courtney Wayment, Erica Birk and Whittni Orton -- had their best finish since placing second in 2003. 

Stanford, which got a gusty performance from Fiona O'Keeffe and was led by the eighth-place finish of Ella Donaghu, finished third. New Mexico finished in the top four for the fifth time in six years.

Iowa State's Edwin Kurgat patiently waited for early leader Peter Seufer of Virginia Tech to tire out before seizing the lead inside the final 2,000 meters and closing to the finish in 30:32.7. He was five seconds up on Colorado's Joe Klecker, who was second. Mantz and Seufer finished third and fourth. 

"I was not worried," Kurgat said. "I knew I still had a lot of energy and I was just like let them run I still got 2K and just kept going.”

NAU, accustomed in recent years to placing multiple runners up high, was largely buried by the field at 1,000 meters and was never able to make up ground. Freshman Drew Bosley's 22nd-place finish paced the Lumberjacks, who finished one point ahead of third-place Colorado.

"Disoriented. I think that might be the perfect word for what we're experiencing," NAU coach Mike Smith said. "I'm going to need to go back and look at it and process what happened. I know that this is also part of the program. (Losing) is going to happen, because it happens to everyone. 

"I have great respect for Coach Eyestone and his program and today his team deserves this."

After a couple of years of hearing criticism for falling flat at nationals, BYU put a resounding end to talk that it can't win the big one. 

"We had some guys out there giving a hard effort and I'm very proud of my teammates," Mantz said. 

BYU had the highest placing third (Jacob Heslington 21st), fourth (Brandon Garnica, 42nd) and fifth (Matt Owens, 45th) runners in the field. Garnica and Owens, both sophomores, did not run at the Mountain Region meet. 

Colorado got a second top-10 finisher in John Dressel, who was seventh. Kurgat's Iowa State team was fourth and Tulsa finished fifth.