BYU cross country wins the Autumn Classic

PROVO, Utah – The BYU men’s and women’s cross country teams claimed first place at the Autumn Classic Saturday at the East Bay Golf Course.

The men swept with a perfect score of 15 and the women won with 28 points – finishing above Weber State, Dixie State and Westminster College. The women competed in a 5K race, followed by the men who ran in 7.5K race.

On the No. 6 women’s side, Aubrey Frentheway finished third with a time of 18:00.6 and McKenna Lee clocked 18:02.7 for a fourth-place finish. Freshman Ember Stratton (18:16.1) was the next Cougar to cross the finish line, taking sixth place.

“Today we wanted to give an opportunity to some of the younger women on the team to see how they respond to competition,” BYU associate director of cross country and track and field Diljeet Taylor said. “I like this meet because I can see what we can learn from and what we should work on. It was good to see them running as a pack.”

Anna Camp-Bennett followed in seventh with a time of 18:17.6. Rachel Morrin (18:17.8), Sadie Sargent (18:23.8), Sara Musselman (18:25.3), Alissa Fielding (18:28.5), Kate Hunter (18:30.2) and Maddie Cannon (18:30.7) claimed the next six spots, 8 through 13. Four more women added to BYU’s first-place finish.

Women’s Team Notables

The women’s squad has won the Autumn Classic seven of the last eight season since 2012 (Placed second behind Utah State in 2017)
The Cougars earned 10 of the top 15 spots
Freshman Ember Stratton clocked a career-best time of 18:16.1

While resting the top four runners on the women’s team, Taylor was pleased to see the younger runners rise to the occasion. Taylor stated that this meet was the kickstart to some hard weeks of training going forward as they prepare for future meets.

“We had a good race out there today,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We wanted to see how our team ran coming out of summer training. Most of the men trained here this summer so they were quite confident in their abilities and had a controlled effort today. We already know Conner Mantz is tough as nails and I was impressed with the leadership he showed.”

For their first race of the season, the No. 2 men were led to victory by Mantz. Mantz won the Autumn Classic individual title with a time of 21:12, 14 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Zac Jacklin (21:26.8). Jacob Heslington clocked 21:34.2 to take third place. Garrett Marsing (21:38.0), Michael Ottesen (21:38.4) and Matt Owens (21:43.4) finished fourth through sixth, respectively. Connor Weaver (21:51.0) took 10th and Brayden McLelland placed 24th to round out the Cougars’ finish. BYU claimed six of the top 10 spots.

Eyestone commented on the strong performances from Jacklin, Heslington and Marsing and the overall depth of the team. Eyestone plans to keep the mileage high for the Cougars and continue working towards the meets in November.

Men’s Team Notables:

The men’s team earned a perfect score of 15 points
This is the men’s team 11th-consecutive Autumn Classic championship (2008-2019)
The Cougars claimed seven of the top 10 spots

After a two-week break, the teams will travel to the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Springfield, Oregon, on Saturday, Sept. 28.