BYU Cross Country Wins WCC Men's and Women's Titles

VAN NUYS, Calif. — BYU cross country swept both conference titles at the West Coast Conference Championship on Friday.

The men’s and women’s teams swept the conference titles for the second-straight year. The men have won the conference title five years in a row.

Whittni Orton won the individual meet title in the women’s 6k (19:49.27), barely edging BYU senior Erica Birk-Jarvis (19:49.33) at the finish line.

Sophomore Conner Mantz took first in the men’s 8k (23:33.75), remaining undefeated on the year after capturing his fourth individual title this season.

Both teams scored only 18 points, posting 1-2-3-5-7 finishes across both squads. For the women, their team score tied a WCC meet record-low, being the first team since Portland in 1987 to score as few as 18 points.

“I’m happy with the performance; our guys stepped up very well,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “Going into the conference meet anything can happen. Portland has All-Americans, so we knew we would have to fight for it. We wanted to go out strong and run in a pack, and I think we did that. Conner and Jake had a nice 1-2, Danny Carney elevated for us at the end. It is good to see different guys step up each meet for us.”

Jacob Heslington (23:35.23) placed second and Danny Carney (23:38.40) placed third, with Matt Owens (23:46.08) grabbing fifth, giving the Cougars four top-five finishers. Brandon Garnica (23:52.35) and Zac Jacklin (24:02.05) also placed in the top 10, finishing seventh and ninth, respectively. Matt Owens (24:11.05), Talem Franco (24:23.01), Garrett Marsing (24:33.63) and Michael Ottesen (25:00.60) finished 12th, 16th, 17th and 28th, respectively, to round out the day for the Cougars.

Men’s Team Notables

The Cougars won their fifth consecutive conference title and their seventh in eight years
Six BYU runners received first-team All-WCC honors, with one Cougar named to the second team
Ed Eyestone received his seventh WCC Coach of the Year award
Juniors Matt Owens and Connor Weaver posted personal-best times of 23:46.08 and 24:11.05, respectively

"I'm so proud of the ladies for their performance today," BYU associate director of cross country and track and field Diljeet Taylor said. "They executed the race plan. It's always fun to walk away from conference championships with the team title, individual title and freshman of the year title."

The Cougar women were dominant once again, with Courtney Wayment (19:55.31) and Olivia Hoj (20:07.70) also finishing in the top five. Anna Camp-Bennett (20:35.97), Anastaysia Davis (20:36.24), Sara Musselman (20:40.34) and Sadie Sargent (20:41.45) finished seventh through 10th, respectively. Ember Stratton (20:57.79) took 13th and Maddie Cannon (21:09.44) took 14th, rounding out an excellent day for BYU.

Women’s Team Notables

The Cougars won their second-straight WCC conference title and third overall since joining the conference in 2011
Whittni Orton is the second BYU runner to win the WCC individual title
Anastaysia Davis was named WCC Freshman of the Year
Eight BYU runners were named to the All-WCC First Team
Coach Diljeet Taylor received the WCC Coach of the Year award for the second time
Sadie Sargent ran a personal-best in the 6k with a time of 20:41.45

BYU returns to action for the Mountain Regional Championship in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Rose Park Golf Course on Friday, Nov. 15, and will be broadcast on FloTrack. Live updates will also be provided on the BYU cross country and track and field Twitter and Instagram pages.