Cougars Run Well At Home

PROVO -- Heidi Magill placed fourth and Josh Rohatinsky placed third in each of their races leading the BYU No. 7-ranked women's (6K) and No. 6-ranked men's (10K) teams to a second- and third-place finish, respectively, in the 2005 NCAA Mt. Region Cross Country Championships at East Bay Golf Course in Provo on Saturday.

Defending National Champions, University of Colorado, swept the competition grabbing both the men's and women's Mt. Region titles.

With their second-place finish the women received an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 21.

"We're pleased to be going to nationals," women's head coach Patrick Shane said. "I have to take my hat off to Colorado; they ran a great race."

Behind Colorado (53) and BYU (59), Northern Arizona placed third with 93 points, Colorado State had 110 points for a fourth-place finish and Weber State rounded out the top five with 148 points.

Individually, Magill was followed by teammate Chelsea Smith McKell, who placed fifth. In front of them, Johanna Nilsson from Northern Arizona picked up the individual title. Behind her were Colorado teammates Liza Pasciuto and Christine Bolf, who finished second and third, respectively.

"I'm quite proud of the way our team ran." Shane said. "Heidi and Chelsea ran very well."

Magill said she was happy with her performance but felt she could have run better. She said Colorado is a good team that ran a good race.

Magill's fourth-place finish came with a time of 21:03.3. McKell finished with a time of 21:07.4, while Breanne Sandberg was BYU's third runner placing 12th with a time of 21:41.1. Cougar freshman Amy Fowler had a time of 21:47.4 and a 14th-place finish and Anne Heiner finshed the scoring for the women with a 24th-place finish and a time of 22:16.4. All five scoring runners received Mt. Region honors with their performances.

For the men, head coach Ed Eyestone said Colorado is a talented team that put together a great performance. He also said his team ran controlled and did what they had to do. Although, the men's team didn't receive an automatic bid, because of previous performances this season they are expected to receive an at-large bid this coming week.

"I thought we did exactly what we needed to do," Eyestone said. "We knew Colorado was going to be a very strong team and we knew that UTEP had a great group of young men from Kenya. We did exactly what we needed to do. This was an advancement procedure and we did that."

By way of scoring, Colorado took first with 42 points, UTEP scored 79 points to pick up the second-place finish and BYU's third-place finish came with 86 points. Northern Arizona had 146 points to place fourth and Colorado State grabbed the fifth spot with 148 points.

Colorado's Bill Nelson won the individual title and his teammate Bret Schoolmeester followed for the second-place finish. BYU's Rohatinsky took third, followed by Stephen Samoei and Japheth Ng'ojoy, both from UTEP.

Rohatinsky said he felt good during the race and thought his team ran well.

"All you want to do in this meet is qualify for nationals and do it as easy as you can," Rohatinsky said. "We did fine today."

Scoring for BYU came from Rohatinsky's third-place finish with a time of 30:33.1, followed by Chandler Goodwin in 13th place with a time of 31:12.1, Dustin Bybee in 20th (31:27.9), Josh McAdams in 24th (31:35.1) and Nick McCombs in 26th (31:36.7).

Rohatinsky, Goodwin, Bybee and McAdams were all awarded Mt Region honors for their performances.

From here, the Cougar runners will prepare for their shot at a national title in nine days in Terre Haute, Ind.