EUGENE -- At the Bill Dellinger Invitational, where second through fifth place was determined by less than 15 points, the No. 18-ranked BYU women's cross country team finished fifth.

Six top-25 teams made the trip to Eugene, Ore., for the meet, with host Oregon winning. Arkansas, ranked No. 4 nationally, came in second place with No. 17 Washington and No. 21 Colorado State finishing in third and fourth, respectively.

"We ran a notably better race than we did three weeks ago at the Autumn Classic," said BYU coach Patrick Shane of the Cougars' second-place finish in a race with far less talent than that of the Dellinger Invitational. "We did a better job running as a team, and our groupings were much better."

The Cougars were led by sophomore Katie Bowen who placed fifth overall with a 6K time of 20:31. Freshman Angela Wagner wasn't far behind with a time of 20:33, good for seventh place.

"We could've started off a little faster but we got boxed in a little bit at the beginning," Wagner said. "But overall, I was really happy with the race."

Rounding out the top five for the Cougars were junior Amber Duffin (29th overall), junior Amy Fowler Layne (30th) and senior Jenna Jensen (33rd). Duffin and Layne ran identical times of 21:06, with Jensen completing the race in 21:12.

The Cougars will be in action again at Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind., on Oct. 13.

Team Scoring
PLACE  TEAM       POINTS  PLACES OF FINISHERS    
1   Oregon        65    1, 3, 8, 21, 32, 39, 45    
2   Arkansas      90    10, 11, 15, 19, 35, 36, 46   
3   Washington    93    2, 6, 13, 22, 50, 53, 64   
4   Colorado St.  95    4, 9, 23, 28, 31, 34, 51   
5   BYU           104   5, 7, 29, 30, 33, 37, 43
5. BYU
    5           Katie Bowen           20:31
    7           Angela Wagner         20:33
   29           Amber Duffin          21:06
   30           Amy Fowler-Layne      21:06
   33           Jenna Jensen          21:12
   37           Cecily Lemmon         21:16
   43           Tawny Bybee           21:21
   47           Anna Sperry           21:22
   68           Angela Petersen       21:37
   85           Stacy Slight          21:52
   91           Carolyn Quebe         21:56
   110          Wendy Harris          22:18

PROVO -- Both BYU's No. 18-ranked women's and No. 20-ranked men's cross country teams hit the road for high-powered meets this weekend.

The women's team travels to Springfield, Ore., for the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Friday at 9:15 a.m. PST and the men's team heads to the Notre Dame Invitational on Saturday at 5 p.m. EDT. These are the first meets of the season when points toward nationals begin to add up.

"It's a very competitive meet and the level of competition will be exceptionally high," said Patrick Shane, BYU women's head coach of the Dellinger Invite. "By beating ranked teams we would enhance our chances of qualifying for nationals."

The Dellinger Invite will feature five top-25 NCAA finishers from 2006, including No. 4 Arkansas, last year's meet champion, No. 15 Georgia, No. 17 Washington, No. 18 BYU and No. 21 Colorado State. In 2006 at the invite, the BYU women's team placed second behind Arkansas.

The women's team is coming off a commanding victory at the Big Wave Invitational in Hawai`i, scoring just 20 points. With BYU's top runners resting, redshirt freshman Cecily Lemmon stepped up and placed second to lead all Cougar runners.

Stiff competition awaits the men in South Bend, Ind., as well. Six ranked teams highlight the men's race, including No. 9 North Carolina State, No. 12 Notre Dame, No. 14 Providence, No. 20 BYU, No. 24 Florida State and No. 25 Michigan. BYU's most recent trip to Notre Dame was in 2004 when the Cougars finished in fifth place. N.C. State won last year's race.

"This is going to be our first big invitational of the year," BYU men's coach Ed Eyestone said. "We're very excited about the opportunity to hook horns with some of these guys and see how we compare on the national level."

At the Dave Murray Invitational two weeks ago in Arizona, the Cougars finished in first place. Stephan Shay, a junior from East Jordan, Mich., placed first among college runners.