Cougars sweep WCC Championships behind Orton, Mantz

CONCORD, Calif — BYU men's and women's cross country swept both the individual and team West Coast Conference titles at Newhall Community Park on Friday. 

The men earned their seventh-consecutive WCC championship, while the women won their fourth-straight. Conner Mantz took home his third individual title and Whittni Orton picked up her second. 

Mantz, Orton and the Cougars now turn their attention to NCAA Regionals. Both men's and women's programs will compete for the NCAA Mountain Region title at Timpanogos Golf Club in Provo, Utah on Friday, Nov. 12. 

Full Results

Men's Recap

Mantz clocked a 23:01.0 in the men’s 8k as he led the No. 7 Cougars to their ninth WCC title in 11 years. With the victory, Mantz has won seven-straight meets and 11 for his career. The senior from Smithfield, Utah became the first BYU men’s cross country runner to win three career individual conference titles.

""I'm super pleased with Mantz," said BYU men's cross country head coach Ed Eyestone. "With how strong and dominant he's been, it's only appropriate that he end his WCC career this way." 

BYU runners Casey Clinger, Brandon Garnica, Lucas Bons and Aidan Troutner followed close behind Mantz to finish third, fourth, fifth and 11th, respectively. 

"I think we ran exceptionally well today," said Eyestone. "Clinger and Garnica were solid and Bons continues his upward trajectory." 

Clinger has now finished in the top-10 in three-straight meets and has never placed outside the top-3 at three career WCC Championship meets. At fourth place, Garnica posted the best WCC finish of his career. Bons’ fifth-place spot comes in only the fourth meet of his collegiate career. The freshman from Dublin, Ohio was honored after the meet as WCC Freshman of the Year. 

With the 2021 WCC title in its hands, BYU men’s cross country has now won 30 all-time conference championships. The Cougars have finished in the top-5 or better in 58 of 59 (1962-present) seasons of competing for conference titles.

*Named to All-WCC Men's Cross Country First Team

^Named to All-WCC Men's Cross Country Second Team

Women's Recap

No. 3 BYU finished with a total of 21 points, 43 points ahead of second-place Gonzaga (64) en route to its fourth-straight WCC title.

"This is fun," BYU head cross country coach DIljeet Taylor said. "A lot of these women are at the end of their careers here at BYU. It's just a little bit more meaningful because of the relationships we've had an especially coming back from COVID, to kind of get back into a normal cross country season."

Orton led from start to finish as she raced to her second individual WCC title. Orton’s time of 20:01.0 was five seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Aubrey Frentheway, Lexy Halladay and Anna Camp-Bennett joined Orton in the top-4 at the 2.2M mark and remained in the top-5 from that point on.

The Cougars placed six of the top-10 runners in Orton (1), Camp-Bennett (3), Frentheway (4), Halladay (5), Lee-Hansen (8) and Musselman (9)

Kate Hunter, Haley Johnston, Anna Martin and Madi Moffitt rounded out BYU’s first place finish.

* Named to All-WCC Women's Cross Country First Team

^Named to All-WCC Women's Cross Country Second Team