Moving On Up in the Polls

PROVO -- In the wake of a successful weekend at competitions in Oregon and Wisconsin, the BYU cross country teams improved their status in the national polls as the men’s team moved up to No. 6 while the women arrived at No. 22.

The United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association moved the men’s team up six spots from their previous No. 12 ranking and the women’s team up one spot.

The men had an impressive performance at the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Eugene, Ore., Friday evening as they finished in second place behind No. 10 Alabama but beat the No. 1 team in the nation, Oregon, as well as No. 8 Portland.

BYU finished with 63 points at the meet, just 10 behind Alabama. Oregon finished with 71 points while Portland had 73. Sophomore Miles Batty came in third place overall to lead the team and finished just two seconds behind the leading Alabama runner.

Tommy Gruenewald arrived in 12th place followed by Brandon Hebbert, Richard Nelson, and Alden Bahr to give the Cougars their 63 points. Nate Ogden, Ryan Merriman, Travis Fuller, Jon Kotter, Jonathan Nelson, Dylan Shawhan and Robert Harrison also had nice performances.

The Cougars also beat No. 30 Villanova and No. 21 Cal Poly along with strong programs in UTEP, Colorado State and Weber State.

After a strong competition at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational, the women’s team came in fourth place overall in a field of multiple top-tier cross country programs. The Cougars beat No. 17 Michigan, No. 26 Wisconsin and No. 28 Arkansas with 97 points while falling only to No. 10 Illinois (95), No. 21 Syracuse (80) and No. 29 Duke (78).

Junior Cecily Lemmon-Lew broke the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course record with a time of 17 minutes en route to a first-place finish, her second individual victory of the 2009 season.

Katy Andrews, Sarah Edwards, Angela Wagner and Lacey Cramer also had impressive performances to give the team their 97 points. Nicole Nielsen, Ashlee Thomas, Rachel Lange, Sarah Frey, Lisa Drury, Sarah Yingling and Michaelanne Laurent also competed well for the team at the prestigious meet.

The men’s team is ranked third in the Mountain region while the women are ranked fourth.