BYU has raised the trophy again.
The Cougars captured their 11th NCAA national championship in program history on Saturday, as the men’s cross country team upset three-time defending national champion Northern Arizona to win the 2019 crown.
It’s the first national championship for the BYU’s men’s cross country program, while the women’s cross country team has four, the most of any squad at the university (they nearly added a fifth Saturday, as the Cougar women finished second to Arkansas by a scant six points).
Here’s a look at all of the Cougars’ NCAA national championships, in chronological order.
1970: Men’s outdoor track and field
The school’s first national championship came on the track, as BYU finished in a three-way tie for first with Kansas and Oregon with 35 points. This came four years after the Cougars finished runner up to UCLA in 1966. Originally, BYU had tied for second in 1970, but when it was discovered that California had an ineligible athlete, the Cougars, Jayhawks and Ducks surpassed the Golden Bears and were crowned co-champions.
BYU, coached by Clarence Robison, was led by three-time NCAA national champion Ralph Mann. At the 1970 NCAA track championships in Des Moines, Iowa, Mann set a then-world record in the 440-yard intermediate hurdles with a time of 48.74 seconds. That still stands as a Cougar record today.
1981: Men’s golf
BYU had come close to winning the men’s golf championship heading into the 1981 national tournament. In the six previous seasons, the Cougars had finished in the top 5 at the NCAAs, including finishing second to Oklahoma State in 1976 (by seven strokes) and again to the Cowboys in 1980 (four strokes).
But in 1981 at the Stanford Golf Course in Palo Alto, California, the Cougars finally won their national championship, edging Oral Roberts by two strokes, 1,161 to 1,163. The Cougars, coached by Karl Tucker, rallied after trailing Oral Roberts by eight strokes through one round, shot a tournament-best 4-under 280 on Day 2, then took a one-shot lead through three rounds and held on for the two-shot victory.
BYU had three golfers finish in the top 15 individually: Richard Zokol with a 4-over 288 (tied for eighth overall), Keith Clearwater one stroke back at 289 (tied for 10th) and Richard Fehr with a 6-over 290 (15th).
1984: Football
The most well-known of BYU’s national championships came from the LaVell Edwards-led Cougar football program in 1984. That year was set up by a 1983 season that saw BYU go 11-1 and finish the year ranked 7th in the Associated Press poll.
The Cougars started their national title drive in 1984 with a come-from-behind 20-14 win at Pittsburgh, then exacted revenge on Baylor, who handed BYU its lone loss the previous year. From there, the Cougars blitzed most opponents and won a pair of close games vs. Hawaii and Wyoming. After beating rival Utah 24-14 on Nov. 17, the Cougars rose to No. 1 in the national polls.
BYU needed to finish strong to earn the national championship, and its Holiday Bowl opponent, Michigan, was the final team in its way. Though the Cougars fell behind, 17-10, early in the fourth quarter, a hobbled Robbie Bosco captained the rally, leading two touchdown drives, the final of which was capped by a 13-yard TD pass to Kelly Smith. The 24-17 BYU victory helped seal the Cougars as the top-ranked team in all major polls at the end of the bowl season.
1997: Women’s cross country
BYU’s first women’s national championship came courtesy of the Patrick Shane-coached cross country team in ’97. Shane was voted the NCAA coach of the year.
Courtney Pugmire carried the BYU runners in the 1997 NCAA Championships, finishing fifth in a time of 16:58. Other scorers that day for the Cougars were Maggie Chan (12th, 17:04), Elizabeth Jackson (22nd, 17:19), Tara Haynes (27th, 17:22) and Emily Nay (33rd, 17:31). In a narrow margin, BYU edged Stanford 100-102 for the team national title.
The final margin could have been closer. According to Shane, BYU runner Caisa Monahan was running fourth for the Cougars until tripping with about 10 meters to go. But Nay passed her up to score points, and Monahan got up and finished ahead of Stanford’s fifth runner.
1999: Men’s volleyball
The Cougar spikers nearly finished the 1999 season perfect, a midseason loss to Long Beach State being the only blemish. But BYU, who finished the season 30-1, had its revenge in the national championship against the 49ers.
After beating Penn State in four sets in the national semifinals, the Cougars were set up with a rematch against Long Beach State. Top-ranked BYU had little trouble with the 49ers in the national championship match held at UCLA, winning 15-9, 15-7, 15-10 in the days before rally scoring. It was only the second time a non-California team had won the men’s volleyball national title.
Carl McGowan’s Cougar squad was led by Ryan Millar, who later played for the U.S. National Team, and Ossie Antonetti, the Final Four MVP. Outside hitter Steve Hinds added 14 kills and 12 digs for the Cougars.
1999: Women’s cross country
BYU nearly followed up its 1997 women’s cross country national championship with another in 1998, but the Cougars fell short of the repeat by four points. The determined BYU squad made up for it by returning to the top of the podium in 1999.
Unlike the Cougars’ first cross country NCAA championship, this one wasn’t close. BYU raced its way to a 53-point victory, with 72 points compared to 125 for second-place Arkansas. It was the first national title for the Mountain West Conference.
In the 1999 NCAA National Championships, the Cougars won by sticking together, as their top five runners finished within 20 seconds of each other. Senior Elizabeth Jensen paced BYU with a 11th-place finish in a time of 16:59, and she was followed by Kara Ormond (16th, 17:11), Tara Rohatinsky (17th, 17:13), Sharolyn Shields (23rd, 17:16) and Laura Heiner (26th, 17:17).
2001: Men’s volleyball
Just two years after winning its first national championship, BYU found itself atop the men’s volleyball world again in 2001. This time, the Cougars entered the NCAA tournament as an at-large bid after losing in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament semifinals.
That didn’t matter to BYU, which beat Penn State in the national semifinals in four sets to set up a championship match with defending champion UCLA. At The Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif., the Cougars were simply golden, sweeping the Bruins, 30-26, 30-26, 32-30.
BYU won the match at the net, finishing with 14.5 blocks to three for UCLA, including seven blocks from Mac Wilson. Tournament MVP Mike Wall led BYU with 16 kills and hit .323, while setter Hector Lebron had 43 assists and five digs. Joaquin Acosta added 11 kills and hit .450 to help secure McGowan’s second crown.
2001: Women’s cross country
BYU followed a similar pattern to take home its third women’s cross country national title in 2001: stay together and win big. Just how dominant was it? Even the Cougars’ sixth and seventh runners finished in front of the fourth runners on every other team.
Like their national championship run in 1999, the Cougars easily outdistanced the field, winning the title by a whopping 86 points (62 to 148) over second-place North Carolina State. BYU’s top five finishers were separated by only 30 seconds and the team had three runners finish in the top 10.
Michaela Manova led the Cougar charge, finishing in fifth overall with a time of 20:42, while Jessie Kindschi was seventh at 20:49. Both Manova (New Orleans) and Kindschi (South Dakota State) were transfers from other schools. Other top BYU finishers included Tara Northcutt (ninth, 20:55), Lindsey Thomsen (23rd, 21:11) and SarahTaylor (24th, 21:12).
2002: Women’s cross country
The Cougar runners repeated as national champions in 2002, the only time a BYU athletic team has ever done so. Unlike the year before, this one was closer and more drama-filled for Patrick Shane’s squad.
Initially, Stanford was declared the unofficial winner. But Shane — who was named NCAA coach of the year for the third time — challenged the results. After an NCAA review, they discovered a BYU runner had not been counted correctly. That gave the Cougars the national championship with 85 points, compared to 113 for runner-up Stanford.
For the second-straight year, Michaela Manova paced BYU, finishing fifth overall in a time of 19:49. Redshirt freshman Kassi Andersen came in seventh in 19:56, while Katie Martin (20th), Breanne Sandberg (41st) and Jamie Cottle (46th) finished strong for the Cougars.
BYU was the runner-up the next year in 2003, the seventh straight season the Cougars were first or second nationally. That was the last time the BYU runners have finished in the top two, but during that late 1990s to early 2000s stretch, Shane had a Cougar dynasty on his hands.
2004: Men’s volleyball
In the Cougars’ first two national championships won on the volleyball court, BYU has swept its opponent in the penultimate match. That wasn’t the case in 2004, as the Cougars and Long Beach State went down to the wire at the Stan Sheriff Center on the University of Hawaii campus.
This time, BYU was being coached by Tom Peterson. In the semifinals, the Cougars swept Lewis — who had beaten BYU in the national championship match the year before — setting up a matchup with the 49ers for the title. Things didn’t start well for the Cougars, as they lost the first set 30-15 and the third 30-20, sandwiched around a 30-18 BYU win in set 2. In a back-and-forth fourth set, the Cougars prevailed, 32-30, setting up a winner-take-all fifth set.
But BYU found itself down 10-6 and 12-9 in the fifth, then had to fend off three Long Beach State match points. Finally, the Cougars took the lead at 18-17 on a Jon Alleman block, then won the national crown when the 49ers’ kill attempt hit the antennae on the next point. Cougar setter Carlos Moreno was named the Tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by outside hitter Fernando Pessoa.
This capped the Cougars’ seventh national championship in seven years, all in either men’s volleyball or women’s cross country.
2019: Men’s cross country
BYU finished runner-up the year before, and Northern Arizona was the favorite to win its fourth straight national championship in 2019. Behind Conner Mantz, though, the Cougars had other plans.
Mantz finished third individually with a time of 30:40 in the men’s 10,000-meter race to pace the BYU effort, and the Cougars had all five scoring runners finish in the top 40.
Daniel Carney (31:05.7, 14th place) and Jacob Heslington (31:10.5, 17th) both finished in the top 20, while Brandon Garnica (31:21.3, 36th) and Matt Owens (31:25.4, 39th) rounded out the Cougars’ scorers.
BYU finished with 109 points, while Northern Arizona had 163 and third-place Colorado 164.