BYU men’s and women’s cross country prepare to compete in the NCAA Cross Country Championships at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida this week.

Men’s Preview

The men earned an automatic bid to nationals after winning the NCAA Mountain Regional at Timpanogos Golf Club in Provo last week, while the women, who finished third at the regional, received an at-large bid during the Selection Show.

BYU men’s cross country will compete for its second national title in three years at Apalachee Regional Park on Saturday. The Cougars last came away with the trophy in 2019. Sophomore Conner Mantz led the Cougars with a third-place individual finish as he clocked a men’s 10k time of 30:40.0. Danny Carney and Jacob Heslington followed close behind Mantz and joined him as 2019 All-Americans.

While the 2019 title was the program’s first national championship, the Cougars have twice finished as runners-up and 10 times in the top-5.

Mantz will seek to defend his 2020-21 individual national title on Saturday. The senior from Smithfield, Utah clocked a 29:26.1 to finish first among individuals, joining head coach Ed Eyestone (1984) and Josh Rohatinsky (2006) as the third athlete in program history to be crowned individual national champion.

Mantz is currently the only BYU men’s cross country athlete to ever record three career top-10 finishes at nationals. As a freshman in 2018, Mantz clocked his current career-best 10k time with a 29:17.1 at the NCAAs.

Women’s Preview

BYU looks to defend its 2020-21 National Championship this week with six of the seven runners from that championship team slated to compete on Saturday. Whittni Orton, Anna Camp-Bennett, Aubrey Frentheway, Lexy Halladay, McKenna Lee, Sara Musselman and Anna Martin will race for the Cougars.

Camp-Bennett and Frentheway led BYU in the NCAA Mountain Regional last Friday, placing sixth and seventh, respectively. Musselman and Martin also joined the pair in the top-25, finishing 20th and 24th to give the Cougars four All-Region honorees.

At the 2020-21 NCAA Championships held earlier this year, four BYU runners finished in the top-40 on its way to the program’s fifth national title and first since 2002. The Cougars were paced by Camp-Bennett (11), Frentheway (15) and Orton (17).

On the women’s side, schools have won back-to-back championships 11 times in NCAA history, including a three-peat by Stanford from 2005-2007 and six-year run by Villanova from 1989-1994. The Cougars accomplished the feat under head coach Patrick Shane, recently inducted into the BYU Athletics Hall of Fame, in 2001 and 2002.

The event will be televised live on ESPNU with the women’s 6K race at 8:20 a.m. MT and the men’s 10K race at 9:10 a.m. MT.

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