NCAA cross country: Casey Clinger paces BYU men to 3rd; BYU, Utah women top 12

SALT LAKE CITY — One year after sending arguably the best-ever runner in program history off to contend for professional honors and Olympic bids, the BYU men's cross country team is still contending for national titles.

Casey Clinger moved up one spot from last year's race to finish No. 7 overall with a time of 28 minutes, 58.7 seconds, helping the Cougars finish third at the NCAA cross country championships at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

With Stanford's Charlie Hicks and Northern Arizona's Nico Young dueling for a one-on-one bout for the title, Clinger — a fifth-year senior who was the Gatorade cross country national athlete of the year in 2016 out of American Fork after winning two Nike Cross Nationals titles — stuck to the lead pack to earn a top-10 finish and a personal-best mark.

The three-time NCAA All-American added his fourth with the 17th top-10 meet finish of his career. His time of 28:58.7 was just three seconds off his personal-best time of 28:55.7 in a 10K set at last year's national meet.

Clinger was joined by teammate Brandon Garnica in the top 25 after the former Springville standout wrapped up his career in 29:21.7 for 21st place. Sophomore Davin Thompson finished 30th in 29:28.8, and Creed Thompson was 35th in 29:30.5 to make four All-American honors for the Cougars.

Weber State transfer Christian Allen finished 47th in 29:42.0, and Aidan Troutner was just a second behind for 48th overall.

Utah State's Yonas Mogos paced the Aggies' 26th-place finish with a time of 30:06.3 for 85th overall.

Stanford sophomore Charlie Hicks used a late kick to hold off Northern Arizona's Nico Young for the individual title by 0.9 seconds in 28:43.6. Drew Bosley added a third-place finish to help NAU secure the team title over Oklahoma State on tiebreaker, clinching the Lumberjacks' third consecutive title.

NCAA women's championship

Coming off the program's first national title in two decades, West Coast Conference champion Aubrey Frentheway led the BYU women's cross country team to an eighth-place finish at the NCAA national championships at Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Frentheway paced the 10th-ranked Cougars with a final time of 20 minutes, 9.9 seconds, good for 32nd place overall. Fellow NCAA All-American Lexi Halladay-Lowry was two spots back of her teammate in 20:12.2, followed by McKenna Lee in 20:24.8.

It's the Cougars' fifth-consecutive top-10 finish and sixth in the past seven years under head coach Diljeet Taylor. BYU has finished in the top 10 at the national meet 24 times in program history.

Racing in a team entirety for the first time since 2015, Utah finished with a historic top-12 team result. The Utes were led by Emily Venters' 12th-place finish in 19:54.1 to finish 12th in the team standings, four spots better than their all-time mark of 16th in 2019.

Sophomore Simone Plourde finished 45th in 20:15.7, followed by Keelah Barger in 80th in 20:30.3. Ariel Keklak (20:37.8) and freshman Erin Vringer (20:49.2) rounded out Utah's top-five finishers.

"Our 1-5 spread was 55 seconds, which was one our better spreads this year," Utah coach Kyle Kepler said in a statement from the school. "I'm so proud of this group for their perseverance and pride in continuing to move this program forward."

NCAA Mountain Regional champion Everlyn Kemboi of Utah Valley finished 19th in 19:59.7, helping the Wolverines to 26th overall in the program's first-ever team appearance at the NCAA championships. Mazzie Melaney added a top-150 finish for UVU in 20:51.6.

Analee Weaver was the top finisher from Utah State with the sophomore's 53rd-place finish in 20:17.5.

Katelyn Tuohy won the individual title in 19:27.7 and teammate Kelsey Chmiel was third in 19:37.1 to lead North Carolina State to the championship with 114 points. New Mexico, Alabama, Oklahoma State and North Carolina rounded out the top five.

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