BYU distance runners Carter Cutting, Isaac Hedengren and Tayvon Kitchen and the school’s 4x400 relay team punched their tickets to the national finals on Friday night in the NCAA West prelims in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
However, BYU’s Olympic steeplechaser, James Corrigan, came up short in his attempt to get back to nationals, which will be held in two weeks in Eugene, Oregon.
Cutting, a junior from Wilsonville, Oregon, placed second in the 1,500 meter quarterfinals to Oregon’s Simeon Birnbaum with a time of three minutes, 37.64 seconds. Birnbaum, the college record holder in the event (3:31.69), clocked in at 3:37.00 at John McDonnell Field, with temperatures hovering in the low 80s and 77% humidity.
Hedengren, older brother of the great Jane Hedengren, turned in a time of 13:43.28, good enough for eighth place in the 5,000 meters, to advance. His teammate, Kitchen, also advanced with a time of 13:45.94.
BYU’s Creed Thompson was 17th and Noah Jenkins was 21st in the same event.
Corrigan, a senior who has battled some injuries this season, placed 20th in the 3,000 meter steeplechase and will not be advancing to nationals. Teammates Jefferson McMullin (23rd), Max Davis (29th) and Garrett Stanford (30th) also failed to qualify for Eugene.
Utah Valley’s Cameron Jacobs placed 22nd in the steeplechase.
Weber State’s Peter Visser is in, however, after placing 11th in the steeplechase with a time of 8:37.57.
In the 4x100 relay quarterfinals, Utah Valley and Utah State finished 19th and 20th, respectively.
In the 800 meters, Utah State’s Landon Bott qualified for nationals with a time of 1:46.96 to earn the race’s final automatic bid.
In the 4x400 relay quarterfinal, BYU placed ninth to advance to Eugene with a time of 3:03.79. Runners included Ben Barton, Jonah Heimuli, Jayden Jessee and Josh Taylor.
On Wednesday, BYU’s Hunter Kitchen placed 19th in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 29:21.67. Teammate Creed Thompson was 22nd (29:24.49), while Dalton Mortensen placed 43rd and Davin Thompson placed 46th.
Utah State junior Walker Deede secured his first career berth in nationals in the javelin with a 12th place finish at the prelims.
Also in the javelin throw, BYU’s Carson Riner was 18th after recording a throw of 65.82 meters, while teammate Brinton Paulson had a season-best mark of 65.46 meters in the same event, finishing 19th.
While the men competed Wednesday and Friday, the women will wrap up the four-day competition in Arkansas on Saturday, and once again all eyes will be on BYU’s phenomenal freshman, Jane Hedengren.
Having won the women’s 10,000 meters on Thursday in thrilling fashion, Hedengren will go for the distance double in the 5,000 meters. That race is scheduled to begin at approximately 7:15 p.m. MDT on Friday and can be viewed on ESPN+.