BYU cross country gears up for the Steve T. Reeder Memorial in Logan

PROVO, Utah – The BYU men’s and women’s cross country teams will compete at the Steve T. Reeder Memorial in Logan, Utah, on Friday, Oct. 5.

The No. 2 BYU men’s team will race against No. 15 Southern Utah University. The No. 9 BYU women’s team will face No. 20 Utah State and No. 27 Utah. The Steve T. Reeder Memorial will also feature College of Idaho and Westminster.

Both teams are taking athletes who normally don’t travel and giving them the chance to compete before the Pre-National Invitational the following week in Madison, Wisconsin, on Oct. 13.

“All the girls that are racing this week are competing for the final travel spot to Pre-Nationals next week,” associate head women’s coach Diljeet Taylor said. “We already ran on the Utah State course this season so the girls are familiar, which should help. It’s a very low-key meet so we’re excited to give these girls an opportunity to race.”

The women are coming off of a strong week of competition at the Notre Dame Piane Invite where they took first place with Erica Birk-Jarvis leading the Cougars, followed by Whittni Orton and Courtney Wayment in the top five. This week in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s (USTFCCCA) national coaches’ poll, the women moved up two spots to No. 9.  

“The meet up at Utah State is a great opportunity for runners 13-18 to show the fitness they have,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “It’ll be a nice opportunity for them to show improvement and the potential of maybe traveling to the Pre-National meet if someone gets hurt. It’s a great chance for them to continue to race and move up in the pecking order and to show us where they’re at if we have to go that deep.”

Last week, the men’s team also had a first-place finish at the Notre Dame Invite. The Cougars were led by Connor McMillan in first, followed by Danny Carney in second place. For this week’s USTFCCCA national coaches’ poll, the men have remained in the No. 2 spot.

Along with providing opportunities for the non-traveling runners, this will be Clayton Young’s premiere meet of the season before he goes onto race in the Pre-Nationals meet. Young is one of the top runners on the men’s team and was rested by Eyestone for the first two meets.

“We’ve held him out of some of the early season races because we want him to be really strong at the end of the year,” Eyestone said. “This will be his first race this year. We’re going to have him run it as a hard workout and then take him to the Pre-National meet where we’ll put him in the lineup in our top seven.”

General Notables

• This will be senior Clayton Young’s first meet of the season before Pre-Nationals
• At the 2017 Steve T. Reeder Memorial, the women’s team took first with Amanda Erickson in first place, followed by Maddie Cannon in second
• Both men’s and women’s teams took first at the Steve T. Reeder Memorial in 2016

The Steve T. Reeder Memorial will be hosted at the Steve and Dona Reeder Cross Country Course with the women’s 5K starting at 3 p.m. MDT followed by the men’s 7K at 3:45 p.m. MDT. Follow the BYU cross country Twitter and Instagram account for live updates on the race.