BYU men’s XC coach Ed Eyestone taking page from 2019 playbook ahead of NCAA regionals

BYU’s football team is not the school’s only team making waves nationally. The men’s and women’s cross-country teams are both ranked No. 1 in the nation. On Friday, they will compete in the NCAA Mountain Region meet, which determines what teams advance to the NCAA championships.
BYU is trying to become only the fifth team ever to win both the men’s and women’s NCAA championships in the same year, following Colorado in 2004, Stanford in 1996 and 2003, and Wisconsin in 1985. The region meet, which will take place in Reno, Nevada, is the next step toward that goal. The top two teams in each of the nine region championships will automatically qualify for the NCAA championships, plus 13 teams chosen at-large.
BYU is a lock for an at-large berth in the men’s and women’s races, and therefore will rest some of its athletes this week rather than race them in the region meet.
“We’re going to treat this like a preliminary heat and rest a few guys,” says BYU men’s coach Ed Eyestone. “Hopefully, we’ll place in the top three or four.”
In 2019, Eyestone rested some of his top runners in the region meet and they finished third. They went on to win the NCAA championships.
“We’re going to run as easily as we can,” says Eyestone. “This is all about advancing and not doing any damage while getting in a good workout. The real race is a week later.”
Eyestone hasn’t decided which athletes won’t race in the region meet. The NCAA championships will be held eight days later in Wisconsin.
The BYU men’s and women’s teams won the Big 12 championship two weeks ago. The men’s team pulled off a big upset in that competition by upsetting defending national champion Oklahoma State.
The top performers for the BYU men’s team are Casey Clinger, James Corrigan, Joey Nokes, Creed Thompson, Lucas Bons, Davin Thompson and Aidan Troutner. BYU, which finished third in the last two NCAA championships, won the NCAA championships in 2019 and was the runner-up in 2018.
The BYU women are led by Lexy Lowry, Jenna Hutchins, Taylor Rohatinsky, Carmen Alder, Riley Chamberlain and Destiny Everett.
Hutchins has been BYU’s first or second finisher all season, but she placed only 36th (10th among her teammates) in the Big 12 championships. When asked about the status of the runner, BYU coach Diljeet Taylor said through a spokeswoman that she “doesn’t want to make any statements on (Hutchins).”
It is a measure of the Cougars’ depth that the team ran away with the Big 12 title anyway. Hutchins, the Tennessee Gatorade Athlete of the Year for both track and cross-country in 2019 and 2020, finished sixth in the 10,000-meter run at last spring’s NCAA track championships.
The women’s team finished a disappointing eighth and 14th in the last two NCAA cross-country championships, but the Cougars won the 2020 championship and finished second in 2019 and 2021.
The University of Utah will enter the women’s competition with a No. 9 national ranking after dropping three places from the previous poll. The Utes, who won the Dellinger Invitational in Oregon several weeks ago by placing five runners in the top 10, are led by Erin Vringer, Mckaylie Caesar, Morgan Jensen, Katarzyna Nowakowska and Annastasia Peters.
Utah Valley is ranked 30th in the women’s poll.