Harrison leads Cougars in last meet before WCC

MADISON, Wis. – Andrea Nelson Harrison led BYU to a 24^th place finish today with a loaded field in the championship race at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational. 

Thirty-seven teams competed in the 6K race, 26 of them being ranked in the top 30 or receiving votes. BYU scored 604 points overall in the championship race. BYU also competed in the open race, and took second place there out of four squads.

"We had a solid race, we just needed to have a better start," head coach Patrick Shane said. "We needed to be more agressive in the first half mile of the race."

Harrison finished 94^th overall with a time of 21:05, with Natalie Shields not far behind finishing with a time of 21:05 as well and 96^th overall. Lindsey Sowards Nielson finished third for BYU and 133^rd overall with a time of 21:20. Sophomore Rachel Stewart came in 140^th place with a time of 21:21, and Sarah Yingling was BYU’s fifth finish with a time of 21:22 and came in 141^st place.

Nicole Nielsen was sick with a cold this week and came in sixth place for the Cougars while at the Notre Dame invitational two weeks ago she finished second for BYU. Kelsey Brown also competed in the B race today and finished with a time of 21:34, which is consistent with the times of the top seven in the Championship race. Brown earned her place on the conference team with today's performance. 

Arizona finished in first with 117 points and Arkansas finished second with 136 points. Conference rival San Francisco also competed today and finished in 10^th place. New Mexico, also from the Moutain Region, finished in sixth place.

"Some good things happened and we will be able to use those and improve on those and be ready for conference championships in two weeks," Shane said. 

Full meet results can be found here. 

This was BYU’s last meet before the West Coast Conference Championships, which will take place Saturday hosted by Pepperdine in Malibu, Calif. The meet will begin at 9:45 a.m. PDT at Alumni Park.