Men Enter National Rankings at No. 9, Women Move Up to No. 5

After a strong showing over the weekend at the Roy Griak Invitational, the BYU men's cross country team entered the nation's top 25 poll, released Tuesday. The Minnesota meet is considered one of the biggest in the country, aside from the Pre-National and NCAA Championship meets, and this year's race included nine of the preseason top 25 teams in the men's Gold 8K division.

BYU failed to make the preseason top 25 list, but received 12 points in the voting to put them in the No. 33 spot. In their first meet of the season, the Cougars beat then-No. 23 Weber State. They followed up their dual meet performance with third-place finish at the Griak Invitational, behind No. 14 Provience and No. 6 Wisconsin. The 9th-place ranking also puts BYU in the second-highest position in the Mountain Region. With the No. 3 position, Colarado is the only region team ranked ahead of the Cougars.

BYU will have plenty of time to recover from the Minnesota meet and prepare for their next competition. The Cougars will have the next two weekends off, and then return to action on Oct. 14 at the Pre-National Invitational in Ames, Iowa.

The BYU women's team placed five runners in the top fifteen to win at the Great American Cross Country Festival. With the win, the Cougars moved up one spot to No. 5 in this week's national poll, released Monday. Looking to stay in contention this year despite losing three All-Americans from last season, the Cougars have benefited from the contributions of several underclassmen. Sophomores Lindsey Thomsen and Sarah Ellett and redshirt freshmen Nan Evans and Katie Martin have finished in the top five for BYU in each of the first two meets.

The women will travel to Palo Alto, Calif. to compete in the Stanford Invitational Saturday.