Women's Cross Country 2022 Season Preview

 PROVO, Utah — 2021 National Runner-Up BYU women’s cross country announced its 2022 meet schedule and roster on Monday.

• Men's Cross Country Preview

The Cougars will open the season with meets at UVU and Utah State on Thursday, Sept. 1 and Saturday, Sept. 3, respectively. BYU will remain in Utah for the Run Elite Invitational on Sept. 9 before traveling to Oklahoma State on Sept. 24 and Wisconsin on Oct. 14.

"I am excited to get the team back together," said BYU head women's cross country head coach Diljeet Taylor. "I am really looking forward to seeing what this group can accomplish." 

The Cougars will compete in their final West Coast Conference Championships on Friday, Oct. 28 in Portland, Oregon. There, BYU will look to win a dominant fifth-straight conference crown. BYU will also seek its ninth consecutive top-5 regional finish at the NCAA Mountain Regional in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Nov. 11.

After finishing second to NC State in 2021, the Cougars will vie for a second national title in three seasons as the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships return to the Oklahoma State course in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Nov. 19.

Despite the loss of individual national champion Whittni Orton, All-American Anna Camp-Bennett and veteran Sara Musselman, seventh-year head coach Diljeet Taylor returns a team filled with both experience and promising newcomers.

Seniors Aubrey Frentheway and McKenna Lee-Hansen lead the team into 2022 with a combined 30 career collegiate meets on their resume. Frentheway, a two-time All-American from Cheyenne, Wyoming won the BYU Autumn Classic to go along with three other top-10 finishes a season ago. Lee-Hansen, a native of North Ogden, Utah, narrowly missed All-American honors at nationals in 2021 with a 46th-place finish.

Lexy Halladay-Lowry and Anna Martin also return after appearances at the 2021 championships.

*2021 All-American

Ember Stratton, a sophomore from Missoula, Montana, returns to the team following full-time missionary service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Osorno, Chile and St. Louis, Missouri. Stratton competed in five meets for BYU as a freshman in 2019, including a 13th-place finish at WCC Championships.

Lindsey Stallworth lends further experience to the Cougars as a senior transfer from East Tennessee State. The Knoxville, Tennessee native competed at nationals for the Buccaneers in each of the last two seasons, including an All-American finish in 2020-21. Stallworth also won the Southern Conference 2020-21 Women’s Cross Country Individual Championship and was named the league’s Women’s Runner of the Year.