Young wins National Championship

AUSTIN, Texas – Senior All-American Clayton Young won the men's 10,000m at the 2019 NCAA Outdoor Championships on Wednesday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.

"I'm waiting for my alarm to go off," BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. "Things could not have gone better in a dream than they did today. Talem advanced in the 1500m, all four steeplechasers advanced, Brian had a solid day in the decathlon and then we had an awesome finish in the 10,000m."

Young outkicked Alabama's Gilbert Kigen on the last lap of the race to cross the finish line in 29:16.60 to claim the individual title. The senior is the first Cougar men's outdoor National Champion since Kyle Perry won the men's steeplechase in 2009.

"I feel a lot of gratitude for my coach, for my teammates and my family," Young said. "It took a whole family and team for me to do this. I feel really blessed to represent BYU."

All-Americans Connor McMillan and Conner Mantz both also placed in the top five. McMillan took third place (29:19.85) and Mantz finished fourth overall (29:19.93). The three combined to score 21 points for BYU to put the Cougars in second place at the end of the first day.

"I often jokingly say that the 10,000m is the most exciting race and tonight it was," Eyestone said. "I'm proud of all six that ended up on the track tonight and then to get three guys in the top five is phenomenal."

All-American Rory Linkletter was the next BYU Cougar to cross the finish line to take 15th place. Dallin Farnsworth (30:58.64) and Connor Weaver (31:11.05) rounded out the six BYU runners finishing 21st and 23rd, respectively.

The Cougars matched an NCAA Outdoor Championships record after all four BYU steeplechasers qualified for the final. Matt Owens (8:54.21), Kenneth Rooks (8:54.39) and Clayson Shumway (8:54.45) all finished in the top five to automatically qualify for the final. Jake Heslington (8:54.21) earned the second of two qualifying spots based on the best remaining times in the field. The four Cougars will make up one-third of the 12 finalists.

Talem Franco advanced to the men's 1500m final after finishing third in his heat. The junior clocked 3:44.46 to secure the qualifying position and will race again on Friday.

Brian Matthews started things off for the Cougars in the decathlon and currently sits in 14th place through the first five events with 3860 points. The junior ran a personal-best 11.11 in the 100m before jumping 6.86m/22-6.25 in the long jump. Matthews then threw 14.49m/47-6.5 for a new career best by more than one meter. He finished off the day clearing 1.89m/6-2.25 in the high jump and 50.76 in the 400m.

The BYU men's 4x400m finished seventh in its heat with a time of 3:08.02. The Cougars failed to advance to the final and ended up placing 20th overall. The team consisted of Michael Bluth, Blake Ellis, Abram Schaap and Colten Yardley.

The women's team will begin competition at the NCAA Outdoor Championships tomorrow, June 6. Information on those athletes and events can be found in the table below. ESPN will continue to provide primary broadcast coverage of the four-day meet. A full schedule listing what events will be broadcast on which ESPN network can be found here. Live results and general meet information can be found on ncaa.org. Follow @BYUTFXC on Twitter or @byutrackfieldxc on Instagram for team updates throughout the meet.

Wednesday, June 5

Thursday, June 6

Friday, June 7

Saturday, June 8

* -- If qualified