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PROVO — The distance between Casey Clinger and the rest of the pack at BYU's final West Coast Conference cross country championships may as well have been symbolic.
Paced by a individual champions Casey Clinger and Aubrey Frentheway, BYU won its 10th men's title in 12 seasons in the league while the women won their fifth-straight WCC championship at Fernhill Park in Portland, Oregon.
After a blitzkrieg of a pace to start, Clinger hit his second split in the men's race in 5:23 before pulling away down the stretch to win by nine seconds over his nearest competitor.
That was teammate Brandon Garnica, who rebounded from an injury early in the season to finish second in 22:08.9. In all, BYU placed seven runners in the top 10, including Joey Notes (22:15.1) and Creed Thompson (22:15.4) inside the top five, in the Cougars' final conference championship before joining the Big 12 in 2023.
"It's always a fun race to come and win a championship," Clinger told the WCC broadcast after his race. "I've gotten third the last few times I've run it, and I was debating on keeping that streak alive or to go for the win. I guess I'm glad I went for the win today."
The Cougars even had a pair of runners outside the team's top five that finished in the top 10 overall in Aidan Trotter (22:16.2) and Weber State graduate transfer Christian Allen (22:20.4) in winning their eighth consecutive league championship and 10th in 12 years in the conference.
Casey Clinger wins it for @BYUTFXC at the #WCCsports Cross Country Championships!
— West Coast Conference (@WCCsports) October 28, 2022
📺 - https://t.co/o1LMGnKA8upic.twitter.com/YTv3OuXCcv
Dominant — much like their 2022 fall season.
In five official meets during the season, BYU has never finished below second which came at the Wisconsin-hosted Nuttycombe Invitational with a group that included seven top-10 programs nationally on Oct. 14. Every other meet — from the UVU Invite to the self-hosted Run Elite Cross Country Classic to the Cowboy Jamboree at Oklahoma State — has been a dominant win.
In some meets, it's felt like the Cougars were competing with themselves. On Friday, they literal were, with few exceptions like Gonzaga's Will Smith in third and Santa Clara's Nicholas Russell in eighth.
"I wanted to get a race in for Casey and Christian, and to focus on keeping a tight spread from two through five," BYU coach Ed Eyestone said. "And Brandon stepped up; he had been injured in the summer, and he's coming around at the right time.
"We had a nice, strong effort. We're in championship season. The WCC has a great history of great cross country, especially on Portland's home course. They beat us last time on their home course, so we weren't going to take that lightly."
And Aubrey Frentheway takes it for BYU at the #WCCsports Cross Country Championships!
— West Coast Conference (@WCCsports) October 28, 2022
📺 - https://t.co/o1LMGnKA8upic.twitter.com/UV8vBpWoYQ
In the women's final, Frentheway soared to a winning time in her senior season in 19:47.2 to maintain BYU's hold on the conference. Lexi Halladay-Lowry (19:52.2) and McKenna Lee (20:08.3) each added a top-five finish, and Carmen Alder (20:23.8) finished ninth to pace the Cougars to 30 team points, a 35 gap on second-place San Francisco, and their fifth-straight WCC title and sixth overall.
"Here at BYU, the program is bigger than the people in it," women's cross country coach Diljeet Taylor said. "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."
The Cougars move on to the NCAA mountain regional championships, which will be held Nov. 11 at UNM North Golf Course in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
