Women's Cross Country 2022 Season in Review

PROVO, Utah — Powered by a band of steadying senior leadership and rising young talent, BYU women’s cross country posted its fifth-straight top-10 national finish in 2022.

The Cougars entered the season facing the absence of key leaders in defending National Champion Whittni Orton along with All-Americans Anna Camp-Bennett and Sara Musselman. Aubrey Frentheway, Lexy Halladay-Lowry and McKenna Lee-Hansen emerged as BYU’s leaders in 2022 and carried on the Cougars’ tradition of “Taylor-Made” success.  

Frentheway earned her third-consecutive All-American award with a 32nd-place finish (20:09.9) at the NCAA National Championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma on Nov. 19.

The senior from Cheyenne, Wyoming also posted three top-5 finishes, including third at the NCAA Mountain Regional. No performance was more dominant from Frentheway than her victorious 19:47.2 time at the West Coast Conference Championships on Oct. 28.

Frentheway finishes her BYU cross country career having ran in 24 meets with three All-American citations, two All-Mountain Region honors and four All-WCC First Team spots to show for it.

“Here at BYU, the program is bigger than the people in it,” said BYU women’s cross country head coach Diljeet Taylor following the WCC Championship. “Aubrey’s been inspired by the women who have come before her. What she’s doing this season is inspiring these younger women who will hopefully carry on this legacy.”

Halladay-Lowry made a dangerous duo with Frentheway as the two harriers claimed BYU’s top-2 spots in four of the team’s five 6k races on the season. The sophomore from Boise, Idaho came in close behind Frentheway at nationals, taking 34th with a time of 20:12.2 for her first-career All-American honor. Halladay-Lowry added fourth-place finishes at regionals and WCC Championships as well.

Lee-Hansen came in fifth at the WCC title meet with a time of 20:08.3, posted top-20 spots at the Cowboy Jamboree and Nuttycombe Invitational and finished top-100 in Stillwater to cap-off the season. The senior from North Ogden, Utah concludes her BYU career having appeared in 18 meets including three conference championship races and three NCAA title meets.

Seniors Sadie Sargent, Madi Moffitt and Lindsey Stallworth also provided BYU with valuable experience and contributed to the Cougars’ successes.

As a team, BYU produced its 24th all-time top-10 national finish with an eighth place spot in Stillwater. The Cougars’ 263 points there proved enough to stave-off Virginia and Georgetown along with Mountain Region rivals Colorado and Utah. Frentheway and Halladay-Lowry’s All-American performances gave the program a total of 66 such honors all-time, fifteen of which have come under Taylor’s tenure alone (2016-).

BYU’s 2022 WCC title was merely the latest in a string of five-straight league championships and six over 12 seasons in the conference. Halladay-Lowry, Lee-Hansen and sophomore Carmen Alder joined Frentheway as All-WCC First Team selections. Sargent, Moffitt and freshman Riley Chamberlain took home all-conference second team honors. Chamberlain was also named WCC Women’s Freshman of the Year.

Chamberlain’s promising freshman campaign was accompanied by debuts from fellow underclassmen Addi Bruening and Taylor Rohatinsky.

Just two weeks after competing at cross country nationals, the BYU women’s distance runners will launch into the indoor track season with competition at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener hosted by Boston University on Dec. 3.