Brigham Young senior Lauren Ellsworth Barnes, who ran the 800-meter leg on the winning distance medley relay that clocked 10:52.96 on March 12 at the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships at Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark., joins DyeStat editor Erik Boal to discuss racing for the first time in her career at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on April 2-3 at the Hayward Premiere event. Ellsworth Barnes is entered in the 1,500 meters, 800 meters and 4x400-meter relay for the Cougars at the first competition since 2018 at the renovated stadium, which will also be the site in June for the Division 1 Outdoor Championships. She examines how significant it will be for BYU to have its entire women's distance group together, after coach Diljeet Taylor had separate groups competing during the winter in cross country and indoor track. Ellsworth Barnes chronicles her journey on the DMR from placing second in 10:54.14 in 2019 at the CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala., with a lineup that included Anna Camp-Bennett, Brenna Porter and Erica Birk-Jarvis, to being the top seed in 2020 in Albuquerque, N.M., with her sister Alena Ellsworth, Whittni Orton and Camp-Bennett, and not being able to compete when the Division 1 Indoor Championships were canceled as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. Ellsworth Barnes reflects on this year's lineup that included Olivia Hoj Simister, Courtney Wayment and her sister setting the tone for the rest of the winter season by running 11:03.62 on Jan. 29 at the Washington Preview at the Dempsey Indoor facility in Seattle, and how that success continued to elevate each group competing in both indoor track and cross country. She revisits her excitement for Alena running a 52.41 split on the 400 leg in the NCAA final, as well as watching Wayment anchor the relay in 4:32.90. Ellsworth Barnes analyzes how impressive it was for the cross country team to win a championship on the Oklahoma State course in Stillwater, having competed on the 6-kilometer layout herself in October. She also shares her enthusiasm for competing outdoors in the spring, and the opportunity for BYU to race against Arkansas this weekend in a showcase of two of the country's top distance groups.

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