PROVO, Utah – The BYU cross country teams kicked off the 2012 season on Saturday at the Utah State Invitational with great performances and some strategy to help propel them throughout the season.

In the women’s 5K race, BYU did not score after deciding to run two incomplete teams without the required five runners. The two teams consisted of an upperclassman team of two and a freshman team of four.

“What we were trying to do today is give some of our runners a race under their belt before we officially open up next week,” head coach Patrick Shane said. “It provided them an opportunity to get a racing stimulus in. If we race our top runners all year long, they’ll get tired. It wasn’t important for us to score as a team today because it wouldn’t have been reflective of what our team is like. We accomplished what we were hoping to. The athletes that run today did a great job.”

On the upperclassman team, junior Candace Eddy Carlisle led all BYU runners with a 14th-place finished in 18:43.24. Sophomore Loren Wynn finished third for BYU and 21thoverall with a time of 18:59.26.

On the freshman team Jennica Redd finished second for BYU and 20th overall in 18:58.19. She was followed by Meghan Hedquist, who finished 25th with a time of 19:07.18. The final two runners for BYU were Clarissa Bons and Nikki Barlow finishing 30th and 37th, respectively.

Amber Henry, a junior from Weber State, finished first overall with a time of 18:00.70.

Full individual results from the Utah State Invitational can be found here.

Full team results can be found here.

Next week the BYU women’s team heads to Sparks, Nev., for the Reno Twilight Classic.

PROVO, Utah – Head coach Patrick Shane and the BYU women’s cross country team start off the 2012 season in Logan, Utah, this Saturday at the Utah State Invitational.

“We are excited to start the season at Utah State,” Shane said. “It will be a great way to prepare the runners for the rest of the season.”

In 2011 the Cougars finished second in the West Coast Conference behind San Francisco and fourth in the Mountain Region. The team also received an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships where it finished 28^th.

For 2012 the U. S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association selected BYU to finish second behind San Francisco in the WCC preseason poll. In the regional and national polls, the USTFCCA selected BYU to finish third and 28^th, respectively.

With several returning runners and a strong recruiting class, the Cougars seek to claim a spot at the top of the WCC.

The meet begins Saturday, Sept. 1 at 9:45 a.m. MT at the Utah State Campus Course.