Three All-American runners paced BYU's second-place finish Monday at the NCAA men's cross country championships in Bethlehem, Pa.
Seniors Jason Pyrah and David Spence and sophomore Brandon Rhoades earned All-America honors, but it may have been freshman Randon Richards who accounted for such a strong finish.The Cougars finished second to defending champion Arkansas by a score of 153-31 for their highest finish ever in an NCAA cross country championship.
Arkansas won with 31, followed by BYU 153, Iowa State 156, Colorado 172, Notre Dame 200, Army 210, Georgetown 243, Washington 269, Wisconsin 291 and Michigan 295 in the 22-team meet. Individually, Washington State's Josephat Kapkory won in a time of 29:32.4, followed by Arkansas' Jason Bunston in 29:40.2.
Pyrah (Willard, Mo.) was the first across the finish line for BYU with a time of 30:21 on the 10,000-meter course at Lehigh University for a 22nd place finish overall. Rhoades (Provo) was the next Cougar at 30:42.9 for 40th place.
"Brandon was in 26th place with 100 yards to go, but he hit a slick spot on the course and fell down," said BYU coach Sherald James.
Behind Rhoades was Spence (Provo) in 45th place at 30:47.2, followed by Mark Johansen (Bountiful) in 46th at 30:48.3, Richards (Blue Springs, Mo.) in at 72nd in 31:20, and Craig Lawson (Granada Hills, Calif.) at 89th in 31:27.3 to round out the scoring. Cougar senior Harvey Franco (Murray) placed 164th in 33:07.2.
For the team scoring, independent runners were factored out of the 182-runner field, giving BYU placings of 14-26-31-32-50 and 67 in the scoring, compared to 1-2-4-8-16 and 29 for Arkansas.
BYU's second place finish was the best by a Western Athletic Conference team since UTEP won the NCAA title in 1983.