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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Southern Utah University's Cameron Levins earned a fourth-place finish, while BYU's Miles Batty finished 14th to lead the Cougar men's cross country team to a fourth-place team finish at the 2011 NCAA National Championships on Monday.
"It was an outstanding team run today," BYU men's head coach Ed Eyestone said. "This is something we've worked for all year long and we were extremely happy to finish on the podium in fourth place. We really met and exceeded most of our goals for the season, and it was nice to be able to come home with a trophy."
Finishing with a total of 203 points, the Cougars were fourth behind Wisconsin (97), Oklahoma State (139) and Colorado (144) in the men's race. Batty led the Cougars' contingent with a time of 29 minutes, 40 seconds in the 10K race.
"I went out really conservative with the team and then as I worked my way up I was running part of the race by myself, but I was able to hang tough and I felt happy with the race and that I was able to improve on last year," Batty said. "We were able to achieve great results and I'm really proud of our team."
Junior Rex Shields and sophomore Jared Ward were next in line for the Cougars, placing 22nd and 58th overall with times of 29:52 and 30:28, respectively. Sophomores Tylor Thatcher and Jason Witt rounded out the top five finishers for BYU, solidifying an impressive team finish with the top five Cougars all finishing in the top 100.
Coming in fourth, BYU had its second-best team finish in the history of the program, second only to the Cougars' second-place finish in 1993.
"Finishing in the top four on the podium today is equivalent to the basketball team finishing in the final four," Eyestone said. "It's a really big deal and I'm really proud of the guys."
Levins earned All-American honors with his fourth-place finish, earning SUU's second top-five national finish in five years. Nate Jewkes also represented the T-Birds with an 80th-place finish.
"The race went out really fast and I tried to stay with the pack and get in a position to challenge (Arizona's Lawi) Lalang," Levins said. "I did the best I could in preparation and in the race and I'm really happy with the result."
Levins' time of 29:04.8 broke the previous SUU record on the course, set by Jess Baumgartner in 2006, when Baumgartner's time of 30:52.3 earned him a third-place finish and All-American honors.
"It really speaks well of Cam's effort to be able to run consistently on national and international stages like this," said Southern Utah head coach Eric Houle.
Jewkes also broke Baumgartner's old school record with his time of 30:39.0, finishing in the top 35 percent in the nation less than six months after returning from a two-year break from training.
"Jewkes' performance gives us great hope that he will be able to fill Cam's shoes," Coach Houle said. "This season has given him a lot of experience competing at a high level and I think he'll be contending for an individual title in the future."
Levins will now prepare for the Canadian Cross Country Championships, which will take place on Saturday in Vancouver.
Mohammed Ahmed led Wisconsin to the NCAA men's team title.
Ahmed finished fifth as the Badgers earned their first title since 2005 and fifth overall.
Lalang, an Arizona freshman and Kenya native, ran away from the field for the individual title, winning the 10,000-meter race in 28:44.1, 20 seconds ahead of Levins.
In the NCAA women's race, the BYU women's team finished 28th overall after receiving an at-large bid to participate in the championships.
"We were thrilled with our team and individual performances today," BYU women's head coach Patrick Shane said. "We came in ranked 30th and finished 28th overall and when you consider that there are over 330 teams that compete to be here, to finish 28th at nationals is really an honor."
Once again the Cougars were led by senior Morgan Haws, who finished 14th overall in the 6K race with a time of 19:59.
"The race started out really fast, but because we run race pace all the time in practice that pace is really ingrained in my legs," Haws said. "I was able to keep my pace and achieve my goal of finishing in the top 15. It was really a great experience and I was glad that we could all be at nationals together as a team."
Junior Stephanie Jensen-Bills, senior Katy Andrews and freshman Sarah Darby finished within two one-hundredths of a second from each other, with Jensen-Bills and Andrews finishing with a time of 21:43 and Darby coming in at 21:45. Junior Rachel Lange-Schmutz rounded out BYU's top five with a time of 22:08.
Georgetown claimed the women's team title, and Villanova senior Sheila Reid was a repeat winner in the women's race.