PROVO — Runners and coaches for BYU's cross country teams say they are hoping for a huge turnout and the NCAA Mountain Regional on Saturday at East Bay Golf Course.
BYU womens cross country coach Patrick Shane called the course "spectator friendly," and said he hopes BYU's decision to grant free admission to the event will result in a strong hometown crowd.
"It helps everybody to run in front of a lot of people," Shane said. "But the fact is, our crowd will be partial and we'll hear a lot of 'Go BYU!' It's definitely an advantage for us to host this meet, and our runners are looking forward to showing what they can do."
Senior Chelsea Smith-McKell said she hopes the "whole town" will be in attendance.
"Cross country is totally different, and it's a great experience to watch these meets," she said.
Smith-McKell said a loud crowd can be a huge boost to the athletes as the Cougars face a difficult challenge this week. The top two teams from the meet will automatically qualify for the national championship meet, while other high-placing teams will have a shot at an at-large qualification.
SWIMMING: The BYU mens and womens swimming and diving teams will begin conference competition in the deep end on Friday, when defending MWC champ UNLV comes to Provo at 6 p.m.
The womens team will also host San Diego State on Saturday at noon. Both matches will be in the Richards Building pool.
The Rebels narrowly edged both the BYU men and women at last year's conference championships, and team members are excited for the challenge and opportunity for redemption that UNLV brings.
"UNLV will match up well with us," mens swimming coach Tim Powers said in a BYU release. "We'll have some really great races. I'm excited about it and I know the guys are, too."
WOMENS VOLLEYBALL: Saturday's flood in the Smith Fieldhouse has forced this weekend's matches to move to the Marriott Center.
The Cougars will play Colorado State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Wyoming on Saturday at 7 p.m., the last two home matches of the season. The BYU womens basketball exhibition game Friday against Mesa State will move to 4 p.m.
BYU workers are still trying to clean up the mess created when a water main ruptured and poured more than five feet of water into the fieldhouse basement. Water seeped in beneath the volleyball court on the main level, but BYU has not yet determined how badly, if at all, the court was damaged.
Power has been off and the building has been closed while cleanup efforts continue and workers fix electrical wiring that was damaged by the flood.
POLL WATCH: On the heels of a disappointing first-round exit from the MWC tournament last week, the BYU womens soccer team slipped in this week's polls. The Cougars went from No. 17 to No. 21 in the soccerbuzz.com poll, and from No. 14 to No. 17 in the soccertimes.com poll. However, BYU is one of the 16 top seeds in the 64-team NCAA tournament field, which was announced Monday.
The womens volleyball team (20-1), after suffering its first loss of the season at the hands of arch rival Utah, fell from No. 12 to No. 16 in the CSTV/AVCA coaches' poll.
The mens swimming and diving team, which swept the Big West Shootout last weekend in Irvine, Calif., debuted at No. 19 in this week's collegeswimming.com poll.
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