SPOKANE, Wash. – With two races now in the books, the BYU men’s cross country team has two wins as they took first place at the West Coast Conference Preview Saturday in Spokane.

Dallin Farnsworth and Aaron Fletcher went 1-2 overall for the second-straight meet. Clayton Young, Nicolas Montanez, and Connor McMillan came in fifth, sixth, and seventh, respectively, to finish out the team scoring. It was good enough for the Cougars to finish with 18 points for first place overall.

“It was a nice team performance,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We went into it thinking it would be a more chill race than it actually was. Gonzaga has a couple of good people, so we had to respond earlier than I thought we would. But we were still able to reach the goals we set before the race. I would give the team an ‘A’ in terms of accomplishing all our goals.”

BYU finished first among NCAA Division I schools competing in the WCC Preview. Gonzaga came in second with 43 points, Eastern Washington took third with 86 points, and Idaho rounded out the team scoring with 104 points.

Eyestone was very pleased with his top runners on the day.

“Our gap between (runners) one and five was about 14 seconds. That was a nice, close spread. Some very nice things happened today.”

Montanez was one of four BYU runners to get their first start in uniform on the season Saturday, but the only one to factor into team scoring. Dallin Taylor finished just outside the top-10, coming in 11th. Steve Morrin came in next at 12th, and Rory Linkletter was 18th. Junior Mitchell Briggs cracked the top-10, finishing ninth. 

“I was really pleased to have some other people step up,” Eyestone said. “I was really impressed with Nico Montanez and Clayton Young.” Eyestone praised Montanez for being the team’s number four man on the day. He said he (Montanez) had the race of the day.

Complete online meet results will be posted on the BYU men’s cross country schedule page as they become available.

The Cougars will be back in the state of Washington on Friday, Oct. 2, to compete in the Washington Invitational. The men’s 8k race, hosted by the University of Washington, will start at 3:15 p.m. PDT. 

PROVO, Utah – After a dominating perfect score at home in the Autumn Classic, the BYU men’s cross country team takes to the road to compete in the West Coast Conference Preview in Spokane, Washington, this Saturday.

“Will we be able to have another perfect score? I think that might be a little greedy as I expect there might be one or two good runners in there who might be able to break us up,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “But I think we can still run a very controlled team race, come away with a victory, and also take some notes about the course layout that we can use at what will be a much more competitive meet at the WCC Championships in a month.”

BYU will be stacked up against WCC foe Gonzaga, along with Idaho, Eastern Washington and a number of junior colleges this weekend.

The Cougars are expected to rely upon Aaron Fletcher, Dallin Farnsworth and Connor McMillan up front. Clayton Young, Mitchell Briggs and Dallin Taylor, who is coming off an injury, will be Eyestone's four through six runners. Nicolas Montanez and Steve Morrin were impressive as unattached runners in the Autumn Classic. Both earned spots and will travel to Spokane for this week’s race. Rounding out the nine runners is sophomore Rory Linkletter, who will be in uniform for the first time as a Cougar. 

Eyestone sees this meet as an opportunity to prepare for the season’s biggest races.

“Our main goal is to run a team race and get a chance to look at the Spokane course, which will be the site of the WCC Championships coming up,” Eyestone said.

This week’s race course follows the same route as the WCC Championships in October. Eyestone thinks more than anything else, Saturday will prepare his runners for a showdown with national power Portland and the rest of the conference next month.

The men’s 8,000-meter race will be held at Plante Ferry Park in Spokane starting at 9 a.m. PDT.

Meet results will be posted on the BYU men’s cross country schedule page following the race.