Cougar Cross Country Unit Rises To Meet Challenge, Scores 96 points

By Doug Binder and Erik Boal, DyeStat Editors/Photos By Chuck Aragon

A course that proved tough as advertised took the legs out of nearly all of the prime contenders by the end in Stillwater, Okla. on Monday in the NCAA Division 1 Women's Cross Country Championship 6-kilometer race. 

Alabama's Mercy Chelangat was the runner who was unfazed, rising over the final kilometer to sole possession of first place and then was first to the finish line.

The Southeastern Conference champion, who pulled out of the NCAA Indoor meet 5,000 and 3,000 in order to conserve her energy, ran 20:01.1 to claim the Crimson Tide's first title. Teammate and training partner Amaris Tyynismaa, a former high school legend in Alabama, finished third to cap a sensational breakthrough this winter.

"I think it was the right decision that we made. I'm so proud of myself and my teammate," Chelangat said. "We've been training for this for so long."

And BYU, led by coach Diljeet Taylor, got a lift from Whittni Orton, a senior recovering from injury and having not raced since October. "Gritty Whitty," as her teammates called her, led up until 5,000 meters and finished third for the team in 17th place.

Orton had just four weeks of training and four "key workouts," Taylor said.

RESULTS

BYU, second in 2019, scored 96 points and beat North Carolina State (161) and Stanford (207). It was the fifth title for the Cougars, but the first since 2002, making BYU one of only three teams in Division 1 women's history to win at least five championships.

Anna Camp-Bennett led BYU in 13th place and the team also got contributions from Aubrey Frentheway (15th), Sara Musselman (33rd) and McKenna Lee (41st).

"I'm extremely proud of these women," coach Taylor said. "What we did indoor, and then to win this, I'm extremely proud."

Taylor split her runners into two camps this winter, with a group led by Courtney Wayment and Olivia Hoj Simister focused on track and others concentrated on cross country. Wayment won Saturday's 3,000 meters final and anchored BYU to the distance medley relay title Friday. 

Oklahoma State's Taylor Roe, running on her home ground, broke up the Alabama duo and finished second in 20:06.7 after anchoring a fourth-place DMR performance Friday. 

Air Force's Mahala Norris, who finished fourth in the Indoor 5,000 meters, came back and finished fourth in the cross country final.

Chelangat won in her first NCAA cross country appearance after not advancing out of the regional in 2018 or 2019. The last time she competed in a cross country race was last October, when she won the SEC title by 11 seconds over Kentucky's Jenna Gearing. Tyynismaa was 26th in that race.

It was the first time since 1999 that two teammates finished in the top three. Villanova was the last women's team to crown an individual champion and have a second athlete also place in the top three, with Carole Zajac securing back-to-back titles in 1992-93. 

BYU's championship was its fifth and first under coach Taylor, who joined the program in 2016. The Cougars had endured runner-up finishes in 2003 and 2019, both by less than 10 points, before returning to the top spot Monday. 

North Carolina State, led by Hannah Steelman (fifth overall), Kelsey Chmiel (ninth) and former high school star Katelyn Tuohy making her college cross country debut (24th), finsihed second with 161 points -- the highest team finish since 2001 for the Wolfpack and the third runner-up result in program history.

Stanford senior Ella Donaghu, a pre-race favorite, was done in by the final grueling hill and collapsed over the finish line in 10th. The Cardinal placed third as a team with 207 points. It was the team's fourth straight top-five finish, also securing third in 2019. 

Big Ten schools Michigan State (212 points) and Minnesota (239 points) ran strong to grab fourth and fifth places. Minnesota senior Bethany Hasz was eighth after placing second Friday in the indoor 5,000, with Michigan State junior Jenna Magness securing 16th after taking seventh in the 5,000 final.

It marked the first time returning to the podium for Michigan State since winning the national championship in 2014, and it was the first top-five performance in program history for Minnesota, which had only placed in the top 10 on three previous occasions, with the highest finish of ninth in 2005.  

Summer Allen of Weber State, more than seven years after making her first appearance in the race (2013) and delivering her first son, Miles, last year, finished seventh overall, right behind NAU's Taryn O'Neill, who was sixth. Christian Allen, Summer's husband, was 14th at the 2019 championship in Terre Haute, with his wife attending the race while pregnant.

The final 1,000 meters proved to be the undoing of more than a handful of runners who either struggled to reach the finish line or collapsed before of after reaching it. 

Examples included Iowa State's Cailie Logue, who dropped from 10th all the way to 126th between 5K and the finish line, while a number of top teams, including New Mexico, Stanford, BYU and North Carolina State all had at least one runner hit a wall after the final hill.

New Mexico, led by All-Americans Adva Cohen and Gracelyn Larkin in 22nd and 25th place, respectively, still managed to place in the top 10 for the 11th year in a row with a sixth-place effort overall.