Wayment, Taylor earn USTFCCCA Mountain Region honors

NEW ORLEANS — BYU track and field distance runner Courtney Wayment and associate director of track and field Diljeet Taylor were awarded 2022 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Mountain Region Women’s Track Athlete and Assistant Coach of the Year, respectively, the USTFCCCA announced on Thursday.

Named the Mountain Region Track Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, Wayment won an individual national title in the 5000m at last week's Indoor National Championships, holding off NC State's Katelyn Tuohy and Alabama’s Mercy Chelangat for the first-place finish with a time of 15:30.17. The senior from Layton, Utah, ran in the front pack of four athletes for the majority of the race before pulling away in the final kilometer.

The All-American’s title was the 10th indoor individual title in BYU women’s track and field history. Wayment also doubled in the 3000m last weekend, finishing fifth to earn All-American honors in a second event at the 2022 National Championships. Earlier in the season, at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston, she set the school record in the 5000m, clocking a 15:15.46. 

Last awarded the Mountain Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2017, Taylor led distance runners Wayment and Claire Seymour, as well as a distance medley relay team, to qualifying times for this season's Indoor Nationals.

Wayment took home an individual title in the 5000m, also finishing fifth in the 3000m, while Seymour was the runner-up in the 800m. Under the direction of Taylor, the pair of All-Americans both contributed points towards the Cougars' overall 8th-place team finish on the women's side.