Former BYU runners are dominating the U.S. marathon scene. Here’s a big reason why

This is getting ridiculous. In the last 12 months, five former BYU runners have thrown down sub-2:09 marathons. That means nine BYU alumni now rank among the top 50 fastest American marathoners ever, four of them in the top 10.

Is there something in the water?

Ethan Shuley — who!? — ran 2:07:14 last February in Osaka, Japan. Casey Clinger delivered a 2:08:43 performance earlier this year in Tokyo in only his second marathon attempt. In October, Conner Mantz covered the Chicago Marathon in 2:04:43, breaking a 23-year-old American record. Two minutes later, his former BYU teammate, Rory Linkletter, crossed the line in 2:06:49. A few months earlier, Clayton Young finished the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:07:04.

“It’s kind of a foregone conclusion. We don’t talk about the marathon, but if you’re successful in the 5,000 and 10,000, then that usually means you can excel at the marathon.”

—  BYU track and cross country coach Ed Eyestone

No school has produced more world-class marathoners than BYU, and it’s not even close. No other school has more than two in the top 50. Powerhouses such as Oregon, Stanford, Colorado and Northern Arizona have two apiece, as do South Dakota State, Syracuse and North Carolina State.

On the road, track or grass, BYU has established itself as a distance-running factory. Since 2019, BYU distance runners have claimed three individual and three team NCAA cross country championships, 13 individual NCAA track championships (including three relays), three individual U.S. championships, countless individual U.S. road championships and one Olympic silver medal while setting several American and collegiate records.

Six current and former BYU runners competed in distance races for the U.S. at the 2024 Paris Olympics, twice as many as any other school (they also had a seventh distance athlete who competed for Team Canada).

Nowhere have BYU runners been more ubiquitous than in the marathon. On the all-time U.S. marathon performer list, BYU alumni rank first, sixth, eighth, ninth, 18th, 31st, 41st, 43rd and 46th. In 2024, Mantz and Young finished one-two at the U.S. Olympic Trials and eighth-ninth in the Olympic marathon.

“It’s quite a telling statistic,” says Bob Wood, a retired agent for world-class runners and former national chairman of distance running for USA Track and Field. “There are probably a number of contributing factors, not the least of which is that their coach was a marathon runner.”

Their coach is Ed Eyestone, a former five-time U.S. Road Racer of the Year and two-time Olympic marathoner. Eyestone coached all of the BYU marathoners on the U.S. top-50 list while they were at the school. He coached all but Linkletter and Montanez after they turned professional. His influence on the distance-running scene and marathoning is difficult to miss, whether it’s running, coaching, writing or commentating. For years he wrote a column for Runner’s World Magazine and he does road-racing TV color commentary for various outlets.

Eyestone has built a powerhouse distance program at BYU. His teams won the NCAA cross country championship in 2019 and 2024, and a runner-up title in 2018, the latter with a team that included four future Olympians — Mantz, Linkletter, Young and silver medalist Kenneth Rooks — plus Shuley.

Asked if he steers his runners toward the marathon, Eyestone says, “It’s kind of a foregone conclusion. We don’t talk about the marathon, but if you’re successful in the 5,000 and 10,000, then that usually means you can excel at the marathon.

“And also probably because that is my background, it’s the next logical step. Good marathoners often are good cross country runners. Cross country is one of our fortes, and we invest in distance runners. The marathon is a natural. It’s not like I have to say, ‘You’d make a good marathoner.’ They’re no dummies. Success breeds success. They see teammates succeed at the longer distances on the roads.”

As Wood notes, BYU runners gravitate to the marathon earlier than athletes from other schools, rather than stick strictly with track races.

Says Eyestone, “There was a time when runners would stay on the track, and then as they began slowing down they would turn to the marathon. That’s wrong-headed thinking. You don’t see the great Africans waiting. The vast majority of them go to the marathon as soon as they are able.

“There are more road races (than track meets) and better pay. Only a limited number can run in a track meet; there might be 15,000 to 20,000 people in a marathon or road race,” Eyestone continues. “As long as they can pay their way there (if they aren’t sponsored), they can race for money. … That becomes everyone’s desire to run professionally, and the roads are a better avenue for that than exclusively track. Most understand there’s good money in the marathon, and if they have the ability and temperament for it, they can do it.”

According to Eyestone, a world-class marathoner can earn $250,000 to $500,000 a year in prize money and appearance fees.

Eyestone and his BYU program are a magnet for distance runners, even for those who don’t belong to the church that owns the school. Some have passed up scholarships elsewhere to walk on at BYU so they can train with Eyestone and his team (the school has the added benefit of relatively cheap tuition).

Eyestone’s program also gets a huge boost because it is located in a recruiting hotbed. Utah high school runners — boys and girls — have won the national Gatorade Cross Country Athlete of the Year award six times in 10 years, including four in the last four years. Seven of the nine BYU marathoners in the U.S. top 50 graduated from Utah high schools.

BYU offers another advantage: The campus is located 4,550 feet above sea level, with easy access for training forays in Park City (7,000 feet) and other high-altitude locales. “More and more athletes are training at altitude,” says Eyestone. “If they’re not living at altitude, they’re choosing to do much of their training at altitude.”

BYU’s success has attracted outsiders to join the Eyestone training group in Provo, among them steeplechaser Courtney Frerichs, the American record-holder and Olympic silver medalist; marathoner Keira D’Amato, the former American record-holder (now No. 2 all-time); road racer Emily Venters, a former University of Utah All-American; and steeplechaser Dan Michalski, who at the age of 29 joined Eyestone’s group last year and had a career season, placing ninth in the world track championships.

Meanwhile, Eyestone and BYU keep churning out marathoners, as evidenced by the sudden emergence of Shuley and Clinger. Later this month, BYU’s star marathoners will grind out another marathon. Mantz and Young will compete in Boston in what could be another assault on the record books.

Top 50 U.S. marathon runners

This is a list of the 50 fastest American marathoners, with BYU athletes in bold. This list includes point-to-point marathons — only loop courses are recognized for record purposes — but none of this matters for our purposes here. Another note: Rory Linkletter is excluded from U.S. lists because he chose to represent Canada, but he is included here. The reason: He has dual U.S.-Canada citizenship, he moved to the U.S. when he was 6 and graduated from a U.S. high school — Herriman (Utah) — and from BYU. It’s also worth noting that the U.S. Top 50 list includes 12 foreign-born athletes who became naturalized citizens as adults.

1. Conner Mantz 2:04:43 Chicago 10/12/2025 BYU
2. Ryan Hall 2:04:58 Boston 04/18/2011 Stanford
3. Khalid Khannouchi 2:05:38 London 04/14/2002 N/A
4. Zouhair Talbi 2:05:45 Houston 01/11/2026 Ok City
5. Galen Rupp 2:06:07 Prague 05/06/2018 Oregon
6. Rory Linkletter, 2:06:49, Chicago 10/12/2025, BYU
7. Biya Simbassa 2:06:53 Valencia 12/01/2024 Oklahoma
8. Clayton Young 2:07:04 Boston 04/21/2025 BYU
9. Ethan Shuley 2:07:14 Osaka 02/22/2026 BYU
10. Dathan Ritzenhein 2:07:47 Chicago 10/07/2012 Colorado
11. Leonard Korir 2:07:56 Amsterdam 10/20/2019 Iona
12. Ryan Ford 2:08:00 Boston 04/21/2025 UT Martin
13. Mbarak Hussein 2:08:10 Seoul 03/14/2004 Lubbock Christian
14. CJ Albertson 2:08:17 Chicago 10/13/2024 Arizona State
15. Daniel Mesfun 2:08:24 Sevilla 02/15/2026 N/A
16. Alex Maier 2:08:33 Düsseldorf 04/27/2025 Oklahoma State
17. Meb Keflezighi 2:08:37 Boston 04/21/2014 UCLA
18. Casey Clinger 2:08:43 Tokyo 03/01/2026 BYU
19. Sam Chelanga 2:08:50 Chicago 10/08/2023 Liberty
20. Alberto Salazar 2:08:52 Boston 04/19/1982 Oregon
21. Scott Fauble 2:08:52 Boston 04/18/2022 Portland
22. Dick Beardsley 2:08:54 Boston 04/19/1982 South Dakota State
23. Wesley Kiptoo 2:08:54 Boston 04/21/2025 Iowa State
24. Abdi Abdirahman 2:08:56 Chicago 10/22/2006 Arizona
25. Martin Hehir 2:08:59 Chandler 12/20/2020 Syracuse
26. Greg Meyer 2:09:00 Boston 04/18/1983 Michigan
27. Elkanah Kibet 2:09:07 Boston 04/18/2022 Auburn
28. Noah Droddy 2:09:09 Chandler 12/20/2020 DePauw
29. Zach Panning 2:09:16 Chicago 10/13/2024 Grand Valley State
30. JP Flavin 2:09:18 Chandler 12/20/2025 NC State
31. Jared Ward 2:09:25 Boston 04/15/2019 BYU
32. Bill Rodgers 2:09:27 Boston 04/16/1979 Wesleyan
33. Turner Wiley 2:09:27 Chandler 12/20/2025 Seattle Pacific
34. Colin Bennie 2:09:38 Boston 04/21/2025 Syracuse
35. Futsum Zienasellassie 2:09:40 Rotterdam 04/16/2023 NAU
36. Alan Culpepper 2:09:41 Chicago 10/13/2002 Colorado
37. Brian Shrader 2:09:46 Chicago 10/08/2023 NAU
38. Ben Rosa 2:09:47 Chandler 12/20/2025 Harvard
39. Matt McDonald 2:09:49 Chicago 10/09/2022 Princeton
40. Frank Lara 2:09:53 Rotterdam 04/13/2025 Furman
41. Nicolas Montanez 2:09:55 Chicago 10/09/2022 BYU
42. Joel Reichow 2:09:56 NewYork 11/02/2025 South Dakota State
43. Christian Allen 2:09:58 Boston 04/21/2025 BYU
44. Charles Hicks 2:09:59 NewYork 11/02/2025 Stanford
45. Teshome Mekonen 2:10:16 Berlin 09/24/2023 N/A
46. Aidan Troutner 2:10:23 Chicago 10/12/2025 BYU
47. Nathan Martin 2:10:45 Grandma’s 06/17/2023 Spring Arbor
48. Reed Fischer 2:10:54 Boston 04/18/2022 Drake
49. Andrew Colley 2:11:22 Chicago 10/8/2023 NC State
50. Josh Izewski 2:11:26 Gold Coast 7/2/2023 Florida
51. Kevin Salvano 2:11:26 Chicago 10/8/2023 Notre Dame

Other notable BYU marathoners and their place on the school’s all-time marathon performer list:

• Ed Eyestone 2:10:59
• Paul Cummings 2:11:31
• Conner McMillan 2:12:07
• Jake Heslington 2:13:51
• Conner Weaver 2:13:56
• Josh Rohatinsky 2:15:22
• Adam Wood 2:16:59
• Conner Peloquin 2:17:02
• Michael Ottesen 2:18:55

Side note: It is revealing that Eyestone — once one of the fastest American marathoners ever — no longer makes the cut for the top 50 list, or even BYU’s top 10 list. Ditto for Paul Cummings, who competed in the 10,000-meter run at the 1984 Olympic Games before moving to the marathon.

Like other races, the marathon has become insanely fast with the arrival of the carbon fiber-plated running shoes, which have been the equivalent of dumping afterburner in a jet engine. It has revolutionized the sport since 2016, when the top three finishers of the Olympic marathon wore the shoes.

Now they are de rigueur for marathoners and competitive runners at every distance. Only 12 of the top 50 U.S. marathon performances predate 2019. The American record was 2:08:47 in 2000 — a time exceeded by 18 Americans since then, including Mantz, Linkletter, Young, Shuley and Clinger. Of the top 50 marathon performers, 38 achieved their time in the last five years. Eight of the top nine BYU performances were produced in the last year.