Once again Ed Eyestone is coaching one of the top collegiate cross-country teams in the country — second in the latest national polls — and this time he barely had to leave his driveway to get them. BYU’s top seven runners — the number of runners who can be entered in a given meet — are not only from Utah, they all attended high schools within a 30-mile radius of BYU. Two of those recruits are former Nike national cross-country champions. Eyestone’ recruiting budget could consist of a tank of gas and a phone.
“It’s probably going to come down to four teams — Stanford, BYU, Oklahoma State and Northern Arizona. It’s going to be close. It’ll come down to who has a good day.” — BYU coach Ed Eyestone
As Eyestone puts it, “It’s unusual to have them from the same country, let alone from same area.”
Take No. 1-ranked Stanford, for instance. The team’s top finishers in the Pac-12 championships — which it won easily — are from Florida, Colorado, California, Australia, Utah, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
“It’s happened before,” says Eyestone. “I think Wisconsin had a similar team from their area — in the ’80s.”
Four decades ago.
“The trouble is, the competition has discovered some of our top guys (in Utah), too,” says Eyestone.
The Cougars have been a national powerhouse under Eyestone, a four-time NCAA distance champion himself. They’ve finished in the top seven of the NCAA championships nine times in the last 11 years and claimed the national championships in 2019. Conner Mantz — another native Utahn — won the 2020 and 2021 NCAA individual championships (he is now a successful professional).
The Cougars were ranked No. 1 in the nation this season until a second-place finish to Stanford in the Nuttycombe Invitational Oct. 14 in Wisconsin. In that meet, BYU did not enter its top runner, Casey Clinger, because of an injury. They finished only seven seconds behind Stanford, which placed three finishers in the top seven. The Cougars came back to dominate the West Coast Conference championships, finishing first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth.
Here is a quick look at BYU’s top seven:
Casey Clinger — As a prep at American Fork High, he was a two-time Nike National Cross Country Champion and the national Gatorade Athlete of the Year. He’s a three-time cross-country All-American who has great range (he has run a sub four-minute mile at altitude on the track). He has finishes of 24th, 13th and eighth at the cross-country nationals.
Brandon Garnica, a senior from Springville High, finished second to Clinger in the WCC meet. He’s the last remaining member of the 2019 NCAA championship team. His twin brother Caleb and younger brother Logan compete for Utah State.
Christian Allen, a grad transfer from Weber State via Copper Hills High, was a two-time All-American for the Wildcats with 14th- and 16th-place finishes. He is married to Summer Harper, a former All-American distance runner for Weber State, who graduated from Orem High.
Joey Nokes, a sophomore from Riverton High, where he was student body president, wasn’t highly recruited in high school but has emerged as a top performer for the Cougars this season. Eyestone calls him, “probably our best pick-up.” Nokes is one four freshmen and sophomores in BYU’s lineup along with Creed and Davin Thompson, identical twins from Lehi (Skyridge High) and Aiden Troutner, another former national Nike champion from Provo’s Timpview High.
Eyestone says sometimes it’s challenging to convince the home-grown talent to attend a school that is just down the road from their home. “They might think, what’s fun about that?” says Eyestone. “I say, what’s fun about it is joining a national-caliber team and doing well in big meets.”
Eyestone has stated on many occasions that Utah’s strength in distance running is a product of the culture and lifestyle. Utah’s other schools also have made regular appearances in the top-25 rankings — namely, Weber State, Utah, Utah State, Southern Utah, Utah Valley.
In the current rankings for the women’s teams, BYU is sixth and Utah ninth. Utah Valley and Utah State are 27th and 32nd, respectively.
BYU, which has finished second, first and second in the last three women’s NCAA championships, dominated the WCC championships. Aubrey Frentheway, Lexy Halladay and McKenna Lee finished first, fourth and fifth, respectively, and BYU’s four other entries finished in the top 13.
Utah finished second in the Pac-12 championships, a combined five seconds behind Colorado. Emily Venters and Simone Plourde finished in the top five.
The next competition will be the NCAA regional championships Nov. 11. It’s a qualifying meet for the NCAA championships, which will be held eight days later in Stillwater, Okla.
“It’s probably going to come down to four teams — Stanford, BYU, Oklahoma State and Northern Arizona,” says Eyestone. “It’s going to be close. It’ll come down to who has a good day.”
