PROVO -- Led by conference athletes of the year Elizabeth Jackson and John Hedengren, the No. 3 Cougar women and No. 13 men ran away with the first-ever Mountain West Conference titles on Friday. It was nothing new for the women, who have won 12 consecutive conference titles. The men picked up their third-straight conference championship. In a race that scores only the top five runners from each team, the women finished in positions one through five to achieve a "perfect score" of 15, the lowest possible total in a cross country meet.
Jackson won the individual title in a time of 17:16, followed closely by Kara Ormond in 17:17. Tara Rohatinsky took third place in 17:31, followed by Laura Heiner (17:35) and Sharolyn Shields (17:36).Freshman Sarah Ellett continued to impress, finishing in eighth place in 18:04, which was enough to earn her conference Freshman of the Year honors for 1999.
The Cougar men had a champion of their own in junior John Hedengren, who fought off a late surge by Colorado State's All-American Bryan Berryhill to finish first for the Cougars in 24:38.
The men finished with a team score of 34 points, 58 ahead of Air Force.
Hedengren finished first for the Cougars for the fourth time in four meets this year, covering the eight-kilometer course in 24:38. Randon Richards was the No. 2 runner for BYU in 5th place (25:11), followed by Marc Lawson (25:25). Freshman David Danley put another stamp on his breakout season with a10th-place finish (25:49). The effort was enough to earn Danley the conference's Freshman of the Year honor. Nathan Harrison, running in his first meet of the season, was a surprising 12th-place finisher for the Cougars in 25:53 to round out the scoring.