It was a close shave two times over as the BYU women's cross country team won the NCAA Championship - a first national title by a Y. women's team - by a whisker Monday.
The first close shave was the final score, as the second-ranked Cougars edged defending-champion and top-ranked Stanford 100 to 102 at the Furman University Golf Course. Colorado came in fourth with 178 team points.And the follow-up shave came at the expense of BYU coach Patrick Shane, who lost his mustache to Y. team members in post-race celebrations. Shane was also voted NCAA coach of the year.
Courtney Pugmire led all BYU runners with a fifth-place time of 16 minutes, 58 seconds - 16 seconds faster than her previous season best - en route to her fourth All-America citation. She had finished 12th last year and 30th as a freshman.
Shane credited backstretch pushes by the Cougar's Pugmire, Maggie Chan, Caisa Monahan and Emily Nay as keys for the team title.
"Stanford went by Maggie and she went with them," Shane said. "She got them at the end. Courtney was 10th with 150 meters to go and she moved up a couple places, too.
"I thought we were winning when I was standing at the 1,000-meter mark. I told our runners as they went by that we could win if they could hold on. Caisa tripped and fell about 10 meters away from the finish and was running fourth for us. That cost her four places, but Emily (Nay) was one of those runners to pass her by at that time.
"Had Caisa not gotten up to beat Stanford's fifth runner it would have been a one-point margin."
Villanova's Carrie Tollefson won the individual title in 16:29 in the 5K race, which featured sunny, 55-degree conditions. Weber State's Sharilyn Maughan finished 24th individually in 17:15.
BYU's Chan edged out Stanford's Sally Glynn for 12th place as both were clocked at 17:04.
"I had to run my best since it was my last race before I have ankle surgery," said Chan, a three-time All-American, including twice in cross country. "I just watched the Stanford girls as my target and started kicking up the hill. I was confused and I really didn't know if I passed all of the Stanford girls."
Behind Chan was teammate Elizabeth Jackson in 22nd at 17:19; Tara Haynes in 27th at 17:22, and Nay in 33rd place at 17:31. Non-scoring placers for BYU were Monahan in 36th at 17:33 and Sharolyn Shields in 69th at 17:55.
Stanford's Julia Stamps was second among individuals in team scoring and fourth overall in a time of 16:47. Other Cardinal placings were 14, 15, 20 and 51.
Last season, BYU finished third in the NCAA Championships and also was third in the nation academically with a 3.55 team GPA.
In the men's Division I race, Stanford won the NCAA title with 53 points, while Weber State placed 10th at 278. UCLA's Mebrahtom Keflezighi won the individual title, running 10,000 meters in 28:54.
Weber State was led by Matt Harmer, who finished in 51st place overall and 36th in the team standings with a time of 30:38. Other WSU runners included Jed Johansen, 53rd, 30:40; Aaron Taylor, 64th, 30:56; Mark Jolley, 94th, 31:19; and Nathan Kennedy, 105th, 31:32. Weber's individual team-points placings were 36, 38, 48, 73 and 83.
Noncounting finishes for the Wildcats included Kurt Stevens at 32:27 and Spencer Talley at 33:29.
Utah's Jeff Simonich finished 43rd with a time of 30:30.