Cougars seeking success at WCC Championships

MALIBU, Calif. – BYU women’s cross country will compete with No. 17 San Francisco, Portland and the rest of the league on Saturday at the West Coast Conference Championships at Alumni Park on the Pepperdine campus. 

The women’s 6K race will begin at 10 a.m. PDT following the men’s 8K race, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. PDT. 

“Everything we have done has been to prepare for these next three meets, starting this weekend with the conference championships,” BYU coach Patrick Shane said.  “We are ranked second in the conference, behind San Francisco and ahead of Portland.” 

The Cougars raced against Portland at the BYU Autumn Classic and won the meet, beating the Pilots by two points. The Cougars have raced against San Francisco twice this year, finishing behind the Dons both times.

Last year at the WCC meet, San Francisco took first for the fourth-consecutive season. Portland snuck in and finished just ahead of BYU for second place. It was the only time that Portland’s women’s team has ever defeated the Cougars. 

“We want to have the best race of the year on Saturday,” Shane said. “We have a race plan that will take Portland’s runners into account, and they won’t sneak up on us again this year.”

The Cougars have a number of talented young women who have the ability to break up San Francisco’s and Portland’s top five runners. Competing this weekend will be seniors Kelsey Brown, Maren Fassmann, Andrea Nelson Harrison, Nicole Nielson, Lindsey Sowards Nielson, Makenna Smith and Sarah Yingling; alongside sophomores Natalie Shields and Rachel Stewart.

“Everyone has looked great in practice so we should have our best race of the year,” Shane said. “If we do that, we will have done our very best and I like our chances.”

A live stream of the event will be available at wccsports.com

The WCC meet program can be found here. The program includes a course map and details on all the teams competing.

Results and split info can be found here following the race. 

Following the conference meet, BYU will compete in the Mountain Region Championship which will take place on Nov. 15 in Ogden, Utah.