BYU cross country teams take first and second at Autumn Classic

PROVO, Utah – The BYU men’s cross country team took first place with 19 points and the women’s team took second place with 32 points at the Autumn Classic on Saturday, Sept. 16 in Provo.

BYU hosted Weber State, Utah State, Westminster College and Dixie State for the meet. The men competed in a four-mile race and the women ran three miles.

“I was really proud of the guys,” head coach Ed Eyestone said. “The fact that we had seven to eight guys right there together through the whole thing shows the kind of depth that we have this year. We’re excited. It’s going to be a good year.”

The No. 6 men were led to victory by Rory Linkletter in first place, followed by Connor McMillan in third, Clayton Young in fourth and freshman Casey Clinger in fifth. The Cougars claimed nine of the top-10 spots. BYU was just four points away from a perfect score.

"I've never started off the season with this much momentum but hopefully that just means that my end goal is higher," Linkletter said. "I don't plan on slowing down."

Linkletter (19:25.8) beat Utah State’s Dillon Maggard (19:26.8) by one second, and McMillan (19:26.9), Young (19:28.2) and Clinger (19:29.4) followed closely behind.

“If we can keep this team healthy, this will be one of our best teams ever,” Eyestone said.

The No. 10 women’s team finished second in the meet behind Utah State, with senior Laura Young (16:46.3) crossing the finish line second. Courtney Wayment (16:56.2) finished fifth and Olivia Hoj (17:03.1) came in seventh. Five BYU athletes finished in the top-10.

“Based on the overall results, I’m pretty disappointed with the way we competed,” women’s coach Diljeet Taylor said. “Times were okay; it was just the way we ran today. We were a little impatient at times and made some moves when we should have waited longer to be more tactical. We’ll fix what we need to.”

Taylor explained that this was a good wake-up call for the team and that they’ll make the adjustments necessary to compete more tactically the rest of the season.

For a complete list of the results, visit RunnerCard. 

After a two-week break, the teams will head to Springfield, Oregon, on Sept. 29 to compete in the Dellinger Invitational.