Results

PROVO, Utah – The BYU men’s and women’s cross country teams claimed first place at the Autumn Classic Saturday at the East Bay Golf Course. 

The men swept with a perfect score of 15 and the women won with 28 points – finishing above Weber State, Dixie State and Westminster College. The women competed in a 5K race, followed by the men who ran in a 7.5K race. 

“We had a good race out there today,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “We wanted to see how our team ran coming out of summer training. Most of the men trained here this summer so they were quite confident in their abilities and had a controlled effort today. We already know Conner Mantz is tough as nails and I was impressed with the leadership he showed.”

For their first race of the season, the No. 2 men were led to victory by Mantz. Mantz won the Autumn Classic individual title with a time of 21:12, 14 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher, Zac Jacklin (21:26.8). Jacob Heslington clocked 21:34.2 to take third place. Garrett Marsing (21:38.0), Michael Ottesen (21:38.4) and Matt Owens (21:43.4) finished fourth through sixth, respectively. Connor Weaver (21:51.0) took 10th and Brayden McLelland placed 24th to round out the Cougars’ finish. BYU claimed six of the top 10 spots. 

Eyestone commented on the strong performances from Jacklin, Heslington and Marsing and the overall depth of the team. Eyestone plans to keep the mileage high for the Cougars and continue working towards the meets in November. 

Men’s Team Notables: 

• The men’s team earned a perfect score of 15 points
• This is the men’s team 11th-consecutive Autumn Classic championship (2008-2019)
• The Cougars claimed seven of the top 10 spots

On the No. 6 women’s side, Aubrey Frentheway finished third with a time of 18:00.6 and McKenna Lee clocked 18:02.7 for a fourth-place finish. Freshman Ember Stratton (18:16.1) was the next Cougar to cross the finish line, taking sixth place. 

“Today we wanted to give an opportunity to some of the younger women on the team to see how they respond to competition,” BYU associate director of cross country and track and field Diljeet Taylor said. “I like this meet because I can see what we can learn from and what we should work on. It was good to see them running as a pack.”

Anna Camp-Bennett followed in seventh with a time of 18:17.6. Rachel Morrin (18:17.8), Sadie Sargent (18:23.8), Sara Musselman (18:25.3), Alissa Fielding (18:28.5), Kate Hunter (18:30.2) and Maddie Cannon (18:30.7) claimed the next six spots, 8 through 13. Four more women added to BYU’s first-place finish.  

Women’s Team Notables

• The women’s squad has won the Autumn Classic seven of the last eight season since 2012 (Placed second behind Utah State in 2017)
• The Cougars earned 10 of the top 15 spots
• Freshman Ember Stratton clocked a career-best time of 18:16.1

While resting the top four runners on the women’s team, Taylor was pleased to see the younger runners rise to the occasion. Taylor stated that this meet was the kickstart to some hard weeks of training going forward as they prepare for future meets. 

After a two-week break, the teams will travel to the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Springfield, Oregon, on Saturday, Sept. 28.

PROVO, Utah – The BYU cross country teams will host the 2019 Autumn Classic at East Bay Golf Course on Saturday.

The women's 5K will start at 9:35 a.m. MDT followed by the men's 7.5K at 10:30 a.m. MDT. Three teams will join the Cougars in the meet: Weber State University, Westminster College and Dixie State University.

Both teams are ranked top-10 in the nation. The men’s team is ranked No. 2 and the women’s team is ranked No. 6. West Coast Conference coaches picked each squad to repeat as conference champions in the WCC.

The Autumn Classic will be the second meet for the Cougar women after they swept the top-13 spots at the Big Wave Invitational in Kahuku, Hawaii, on Saturday, Aug. 31.

The women’s team welcomes back seven contributors that placed seventh at the 2018 national meet with Erica Birk-Jarvis, Courtney Wayment, Olivia Hoj, Aubrey Frentheway, Anna Camp-Bennett, Sara Musselman and Sadie Sargent. Standout runner Whittni Orton will be returning from injury as well.

Women’s Team Notables

• The Cougars ranked nationally in the USTFCCCA preseason top 25 for the third-straight season
• All-Americans Erica Birk-Jarvis and Courtney Wayment return for the 2019 season
• The women's squad has won the Autumn Classic three of the last four seasons (Finished second behind Utah State in 2017)
• Erica Birk-Jarvis won the Autumn Classic last year after last winning the meet in 2016
• Six Cougars were named to the All-WCC preseason team (Birk-Jarvis, Wayment, Camp-Bennett, Hoj and Musselman)
• BYU was ranked No. 1 ranking in the WCC preseason coaches poll and picked to defend their conference title

“It’ll be a nice opener for us,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “At that point we’ll have two, three weeks working together as a team. I’m very confident that we’ll do extremely well there. I think the guys will be very motivated to go out and do well in our season opener.”

BYU returns multiple key runners from last year’s national runner-up team in Conner Mantz, Clayson Shumway, Brayden McLelland and Jacob Heslington. Each runner competed in the 2018 NCAA Cross Country championship and helped the team earn a second-place finish.

Men’s Team Notables

• Five Cougars were named to the All-WCC preseason team (Mantz, Shumway, Heslington, McLelland and sophomore Zac Jacklin)
• Clayson Shumway was the 2018 Autumn Classic Champion
• A BYU men's runner has won the Autumn Classic every year since 2008
• Weber State has traveled to Provo every year since 2013 to compete in the Autumn Classic
• The men's team has won six-straight regular-season cross country meets since 2017
• WCC coaches tabbed the Cougars to win their fifth-straight conference title in the WCC preseason poll

Live results can be found on runnercard.com and live updates will be posted on BYU cross country’s Twitter and Instagram pages. A live video will also be available on the team Facebook page. Admission is $6 and additional race information can be found here.