Cougars Prepare to Race at Home for the 2019 Autumn Classic

PROVO, Utah – The BYU cross country teams will host the 2019 Autumn Classic at East Bay Golf Course on Saturday.

The women's 5K will start at 9:35 a.m. MDT followed by the men's 7.5K at 10:30 a.m. MDT. Three teams will join the Cougars in the meet: Weber State University, Westminster College and Dixie State University.

Both teams are ranked top-10 in the nation. The men’s team is ranked No. 2 and the women’s team is ranked No. 6. West Coast Conference coaches picked each squad to repeat as conference champions in the WCC.

The Autumn Classic will be the second meet for the Cougar women after they swept the top-13 spots at the Big Wave Invitational in Kahuku, Hawaii, on Saturday, Aug. 31.

The women’s team welcomes back seven contributors that placed seventh at the 2018 national meet with Erica Birk-Jarvis, Courtney Wayment, Olivia Hoj, Aubrey Frentheway, Anna Camp-Bennett, Sara Musselman and Sadie Sargent. Standout runner Whittni Orton will be returning from injury as well.

Women’s Team Notables

• The Cougars ranked nationally in the USTFCCCA preseason top 25 for the third-straight season
• All-Americans Erica Birk-Jarvis and Courtney Wayment return for the 2019 season
• The women's squad has won the Autumn Classic three of the last four seasons (Finished second behind Utah State in 2017)
• Erica Birk-Jarvis won the Autumn Classic last year after last winning the meet in 2016
• Six Cougars were named to the All-WCC preseason team (Birk-Jarvis, Wayment, Camp-Bennett, Hoj and Musselman)
• BYU was ranked No. 1 ranking in the WCC preseason coaches poll and picked to defend their conference title

“It’ll be a nice opener for us,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “At that point we’ll have two, three weeks working together as a team. I’m very confident that we’ll do extremely well there. I think the guys will be very motivated to go out and do well in our season opener.”

BYU returns multiple key runners from last year’s national runner-up team in Conner Mantz, Clayson Shumway, Brayden McLelland and Jacob Heslington. Each runner competed in the 2018 NCAA Cross Country championship and helped the team earn a second-place finish.

Men’s Team Notables

• Five Cougars were named to the All-WCC preseason team (Mantz, Shumway, Heslington, McLelland and sophomore Zac Jacklin)
• Clayson Shumway was the 2018 Autumn Classic Champion
• A BYU men's runner has won the Autumn Classic every year since 2008
• Weber State has traveled to Provo every year since 2013 to compete in the Autumn Classic
• The men's team has won six-straight regular-season cross country meets since 2017
• WCC coaches tabbed the Cougars to win their fifth-straight conference title in the WCC preseason poll

Live results can be found on runnercard.com and live updates will be posted on BYU cross country’s Twitter and Instagram pages. A live video will also be available on the team Facebook page. Admission is $6 and additional race information can be found here.