Both the men and women's cross country teams placed first overall at the BYU Autumn Classic, Saturday morning. The meet was held at Cascade Golf Course, with over 3,000 spectators on hand to cheer the Cougars on.

Josh Rohatinsky finished first overall with a time of 19:31.9 in the men's 4-mile race for the second week in a row, beating his previous time by 19 seconds. The junior helped guide the Cougars to an 11 point overall victory over second place Minnesota.

"With about 800m left, I felt kind of wobbly," Rohatinsky said. "I thought I might fall over a couple times, but that's what I get for taking it out."

Rohatinsky held the lead over University of Minnesota's Andrew Carlson heading into the final stages of the race, but with about a half-a-mile left to go, Rohatinsky put it into another gear, increasing his lead to one Carlson couldn't catch.

"After about 1200m, I felt like I could take it out and bound these guys in the ground so they won't come back on me," Rohatinsky said. "It worked, but I paid for it too."

"Josh took some initiative and grabbed the bull by the horns and showed why he's a top ten caliber guy in the country," said men's coach Ed Eyestone.

Coming in third place was teammate Bryan Lindsay with a time of 20:01.3.

"It was nice to have a home race," Lindsay said. "Everyone knows your name and is cheering you on. It was a tough race today and luckily I had enough."

Winning the women's 5K event with a time of 17:55.1 was senior Rena Williams-Chesser. Behind Chesser by 23 seconds was UVSC's Amanda Olsen.

Chesser rolled to victory and led the women to a 37 point overall win over second place Utah State.

"As a team we wanted to stay together the first mile and run a six minute pace," Chesser said. "After the mile was over we could go from there and run however fast we could, but always trying to stay with somebody from our team."

Chesser did what Coach Shane asked for the first mile, but as for the rest of the race she set the pace.

"This being my last year I feel I have a lot to accomplish before the year is over," said Chesser.

"Rena is a good runner," women's coach Patrick Shane said. "She'll be in our top five group of runners. She had a great summer of training and looked particularly good today."

Ann Heiner, who finished first in last weeks BYU Alumni Invitational, placed third overall with a time of 18:28.0. Improving her time from last week by 30 seconds.

"I was pleased with how our young developing athletes ran," Shane said. "We're right where we want to be at the beginning of the season."

The women have two weeks to prepare for the Great America, which will be held on September 24, in Cary, North Carolina.

The men's next meet won't be for another three weeks, when they travel to South Bend, Indiana on Oct 1, for the Notre Dame Invitational.

"It was nice to battle against some other teams, particularly top 25 teams like University of Minnesota and Utah State," said Eyestone. "Our main thing was to get through this unscathed and to chalk up a victory and we did that."

Men's 4 Mile 
Cascade Golf Course
1. Brigham Young University 28
Place	Name	             Time	      Score	
--------------------------------------------
1.	   Josh Rohatinsky	  19:31.9	   1.
3.	   Bryan Lindsay	    20:01.3	   3.	
6.	   Matt Adams	       20:24.0	   6.	
7.	   Chandler Goodwin	 20:29.0	   7.	
11.   Dustin Bybee	     20:43.6	   11.	
12.   Josh McAdams	     20:44.2	  (12.)	
15.	  Chad Durham	      20:49.3	  (15.)	
16.	  Nick McCombs	     20:51.2	   NS	
17.	  Lars Kjerengtroen	20:51.6	   NS	
18.	  Brett Andrus	     20:52.3	   NS
20.	  Warren Davis	     21:01.0	   NS
23.	  Jason Dorais	     21:10.6	   NS
27.	  Dustin Trail	     21:18.7	   NS
31.	  David Woodbury	   21:29.9	   NS	
39.	  Jace Kellogg	     22:13.3	   NS
Women's 5K
Cascade Golf Course
1. Brigham Young University 22
Place	Name	                    Time	        Score	
-----------------------------------------------------
1.	   Rena Williams-Chesser	   17:55.1	     1.	
3.	   Ann Heiner	              18:28.0	     3.	
5.	   Julie Cameron	           18:46.3	     5.
6.	   Jami Caldwell	           18:47.3	     6.	
7.	   Amber Harper	            18:48.2	     7.	
9.	   Carolyn Quebe	           18:58.7	    (9.)	
10.	  Jenna Taylor	            19:00.2	    (10.)	
11.	  Kristy Barrus	           19:01.3	     NS	
12.	  Lisa Frischnecht	        19:06.9	     NS	
15.	  Sarah Ingebretsen	       19:20.4	     NS

After their season opener last weekend, the men and women's cross country team faces a tougher challenge this weekend as they host the 2004 BYU Autumn Classic.

Utah State, UVSC, Minnesota, and Boise State will be the teams competing at this year's event.

"Boise State and Utah State are two teams that have a solid group of runners," said BYU women's coach Patrick Shane.

The women face a tough road ahead of them, as they'll be going through their 2004 season without their No. 1 runner in Kassi Andersen.

Andersen will undergo surgery at the University of Utah Hospital to have a plate put into her left pelvis.

Andersen and her older brother were riding their bikes back from Aspen Grove in American Fork Canyon last Saturday afternoon, when a truck pulling a trailer came around a blind left-hand turn at the same time Andersen and her brother approached.

Andersen tried to slow down to avoid the trailer, but was thrown off her bike and underneath the trailer. The accident left her with a fractured left elbow and a broken left pelvis.

"You can't replace your No. 1 runner," Shane said. "All you can do is ask the team to step it up. We'll rise to the occasion and we'll be fine."

As for the men, every one is healthy and looking forward to this weekend's race. The competition they'll be facing is a good test of how they'll fair throughout the season.

"This upcoming weekend is going to be our first true race," men's BYU coach Ed Eyestone said. "I think you'll see a very strong performance from us this weekend and that's exciting. If we can have a pack of five guys within about 30 seconds of each other with our top guy being way up there then we're going to be good."

The race will be held Saturday, September 11th, at Cascade Golf Course in Orem and will begin with the men's 4 mile at 10:00 a.m. followed by the women's 5K at 11:00 a.m. Admission into the event will be $3.00 for adults, $1.00 for students, and children five and under are free.