The BYU men's and women's cross country teams each ran away with a WAC championship Saturday, and piled up a number of honors in the process.
The Cougar women claimed their sixth straight WAC title, accumulating only 20 points and outdistancing second-place Colorado State by 52 points. Janeth Caizalitin won the individual title for the third straight year, setting the pace with a time of 17:49, and in the process was named WAC Runner of the Year for a third time.Caizalitin was followed by teammates Courtney Pugmire (17:57) and Marty Aparicio (18:03), marking the first time the Cougars have ever captured the top three spots in the WAC championships. The women's score was rounded out by Diane Wilson (18:14, sixth place), and Maggie Chan (18:21, eighth place).
"I'm extremely pleased with our team performance; it was a very difficult course," said BYU women's coach Patrick Shane, who himself was named WAC Coach of the Year. "And I'm very happy for Janeth - that's a great way to finish up, with a perfect record."
The Cougar men also had something to celebrate, as they stole back the WAC crown which had been surrendered to the Air Force Academy in 1994. BYU totaled a score of 36 points, 40 points ahead of the second-place Falcons.
While individual honors went to Air Force's Eric Mack with a time of 24:38, BYU found strength in numbers at the top of the leader board. Craig Lawson (25:06), Brandon Rhoads (25:18), Mark Johnason (25:28), and John Hedengren (25:33) finished third, fifth, sixth, and eighth place respectively, accounting for the Cougars strong showing. Dan Alder took 14th place with a time of 25:47, rounding out the scoring for BYU.
In addition to the honors which the runners earned for themselves, they also performed well enough for BYU men's coach Sherald James to be named WAC Coach of the Year. This gave the Cougars a sweep in the coaches' award department.
Both squads will now look forward to the NCAA Region VII Championships on Nov. 11 in Salt Lake City, and then on to the NCAA Championships in Ames, Iowa on Nov. 20th.
"This was our best meet of the year, and we've got two more to go," Shane said. "I feel really good about what we did, and as we prepare for the next meet I hope we can just continue to get better."