BYU Men's Cross Country Named Scholar Team of the Year

NEW ORLEANS — The USTFCCCA named the national champion BYU men’s cross country team the NCAA Division I Scholar Team of the Year for the second-straight season.

The Cougars earned the award for the second time in as many years, a feat that had not been done since Iona went back-to-back-to-back from 2006 to 2008. 

All-Academic honorees are selected by being the top finishing team with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. The men’s team finished the season as national champions and had a cumulative GPA of 3.42.

In addition, the BYU women’s cross country team was honored as a 2019 NCAA Division I Cross Country All-Academic team by the USTFCCCA after finishing as the national runners-up. The team finished second overall at the national meet and had an average GPA of 3.46.

The Cougars had four members of the men’s team and two members of the women’s team receive USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. Student-athlete nominations for the individual honors must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25 and have finished in the top 25 (top 10 percent) at regionals or as an All-American at nationals (top-40 finish).

Conner Mantz, Jacob Heslington, Michael Ottesen and Connor Weaver received the academic honors for the men’s team. Mantz took fourth at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships and placed third at Nationals, BYU’s best individual finish since 2006 when Josh Rohatinsky took first. The sophomore All-American is majoring in mechanical engineering.

Heslington qualified for the honor by finishing eighth at regionals and receiving All-America honors after his 21st-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The senior is majoring in mechanical engineering. Ottesen finished 21st overall for BYU at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships and also competed at nationals to place 87th. He is also majoring in mechanical engineering. Weaver finished 13th at regionals and 154th at the national meet. He is majoring in family, home and social sciences.

Erica Birk-Jarvis and Olivia Hoj earned All-Academic honors from the USTFCCCA. Birk-Jarvis placed third at the Mountain Region Championships and finished sixth at the NCAA Championships. The senior All-American is majoring in family life. Hoj received the academic honor for the third year in a row after finishing in the top 25 at the NCAA Mountain Regionals for three-straight years; at Nationals, the junior public health major took 56th overall.

BYU also won its first national championship in program history and head coach Ed Eyestone earned the National Coach of the Year award as well. 

Led by the five-six-seven finish of Courtney Wayment-Smith, Birk-Jarvis and Whittni Orton, the BYU women finished as national runners-up, the team’s best finish since 2003 where the women also finished second. Wayment-Smith, Birk-Jarvis and Orton all earned All-America honors and had the best three finishes at the national meet in program history. 

Associate Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Diljeet Taylor was also named NCAA Mountain Region Coach of the Year after her squad took first place at the Mountain Region Championships.

The full release of the 2019 NCAA Division I All-Academic honorees can be found on ustfccca.org.