Cross country debuts in San Francisco

The BYU Cougars started off their season Saturday at the San Francisco Invitational and claimed a fourth place finish. 

Eight teams competed with Stanford taking first, California placing second and host San Francisco coming in at third. 

It was a close race between BYU and San Francisco, with the Cougars scoring 96 points and San Francisco scoring 85 points. BYU’s top finisher was Makenna Smith at 17th overall with a time of 18:36. Jennica Redd was BYU’s second finisher earning 19th place with a time of 18:40. Emily Rich finished 21st overall with a time of 18:45, with Bryn Rohner not far behind in 24th and a time of 18:52. Freshman Danielle Menlove took 25th overall with a time of 18:56. 

“I was impressed with the tight finish of our scoring five,” said head coach Patrick Shane. “Our first through fifth place finishers were only 20 seconds apart. That’s a tight group.”

Maddie Roach came in 27th place with a time of 19:04 and Carrie Jube took 28th with a time of 19:05. BYU”s first through seventh finishers only had a 29 second gap. 

“For me, coming out of high school I was definitely nervous,” said freshman Rich. “I got out strong, ran hard, and was really pleased with my performance.”

For most of the Cougars that competed this weekend, this was their first race at BYU. Rich was a standout from Bingham High School last season and competed in her first collegiate race. Smith is also competing in her first cross country season in a year, after an internship relocated her last season. 

“It was a pretty good grouping and even though I came in first place for our team, the other girls were close behind me,” Smith said. “We raced off of each other and it was a good meet.” 

Full results from the meet can be found here. 

BYU’s next meet will be the BYU Autumn Classic at home on Sept. 14 on the grass fields at the outdoor track.