The BYU men’s and women’s cross-country teams took first place at the Joe Piane Invite in convincing fashion on Friday, Sept. 28, in Notre Dame, Indiana. It marked the second-straight meet both the men and women finished first.
The No. 2 BYU men’s team finished with 23 points, rising above the other 16 schools, including No. 28 Furman. The No. 11 women’s team earned 37 points, finishing ahead of 18 other schools, including No. 12 Furman, No. 21 California and No. 22 Notre Dame.
The women competed in a 5K race, followed by the men who ran in a 5-mile race.
“What we were hoping for was a strong performance. We really didn’t back down for this meet at all,” head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We accomplished that goal and showed that we could race really well on tired legs. The bottom line is, at the finish we had guys in the first and second position. Overall, it tells us we’re in a good position. We need to continue to improve, however. ”
All-American Connor McMillan led the BYU men’s team with his first-place finish (23.43.22), followed closely by senior Danny Carney’s second-place finish with a time of 23:43.70. The Cougars secured three more spots in the top 10 with Conner Mantz (23:52.37) finishing in fifth, Clayson Shumway (23:55.32) in sixth and All-American Rory Linkletter (24.06.61) in ninth. The men’s team had two more top-20 finishes from Jacob Heslington and Zachry Jacklin.
In terms of standout performances, Eyestone said he was impressed with Shumway for closing the gap and stepping up to lead the overall race early on and the way McMillan and Carney battled for the one and two spots. Eyestone also commented that this meet will help determine the top-12 runners for Pre-Nationals.
Coming off a win at the Autumn Classic, the BYU women’s team secured another meet title, with Erica Birk-Jarvis leading the team. Birk-Jarvis and Whittni Orton were close behind Notre Dame’s Anna Rohrer until the two of them gradually ran ahead and battled it out for the finish. Birk-Jarvis ran a career-best time of 16:19.53 to win the race, while Orton (16:26.02) finished in second and Courtney Wayment took fifth (16:47.44). All together, they claimed three of the top-five spots. The Cougars had three more top-20 finishes from Olivia Hoj, Madelyn Dickson and freshman McKenna Lee.
“I was super pleased with our performance as a team. Coming in as the highest ranked team, I was expecting a good performance,” BYU women’s cross-country coach Diljeet Taylor said. “We still have some things that we want to work on going into Pre-Nationals. It was a good opportunity for me to see how our women line up with a couple (of) ranked teams and just what we need to work on moving forward.”
Taylor was glad to see Birk-Jarvis and Orton work together throughout the entire race, as well as how some of the other girls stepped up. Combined with practice, this meet will be taken into consideration when determining the seven-women lineup for Pre-Nationals.
Next week, the Cougars will return to Logan, Utah, for the Steve T. Reeder Memorial on Friday, Oct. 5.