NCAA track and field: BYU struggles on final day of men's championships

PROVO — BYU's strong start to the 2026 NCAA men's outdoor track and field championships limped to the finish line Friday night.

The Cougars got just one team point on the final day of competition to finish 21st Friday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Carter Cutting opened the evening session for BYU with a first-team All-American performance. The indoor mile national champion ran 3:38.10 in the 1,500 meters to finish eighth overall, two seconds behind winner Simeon Birnbaum of Oregon.

Cutting hung with the front pack into the final lap. But Birnbaum closed his final split in 52.08 seconds and began celebrating with about 60 meters remaining while holding off all challengers.

That included a spirited comeback attempt by the junior from Wilsonville, Oregon, who opened his final kick with 200 meters remaining in an attempt to hold on — or push past — the collegiate record holder from Oregon. Cutting initially pulled into second place, but ran out of gas in the final 100 meters and was passed by the main front pack.

Isaac Hedengren finished eighth in the men's 5,000-meter final, clinching a time of 13:48.84 to score the Cougars' lone team point a day after Ben Barton became the first BYU decathlete to win a national championship since 1981.

Kitchen, who led the NCAA cross country championships before falling behind in the fall, hung two shoulders off New Mexico's Habtom Samuel with three laps remaining. But after Oregon's Birnbaum was forced to withdraw, the youngster from Central Point, Oregon, fell outside the top five ahead of the final lap.

Kitchen finished outside the top 10 with a 14th-place time of 13:57.42.

Samuel ripped off a 55-second final lap to clinch the win, and the double less than 48 hours after winning the men's 10,000-meter title.

"This is a really awesome moment for me, for my team, for everyone who supported me through the journey," Samuel, the junior Eritrean international, told ESPN after winning his fifth NCAA title. "I've always dreamed of doing the double."

Arkansas followed up its indoor men's track and field title by holding off Georgia, Tennessee and LSU for their first men's outdoor title in over 20 years. Oregon finished fifth, 16 points behind the Razorbacks.

NCAA women's competition wraps up Saturday, but BYU senior Zoey Bonds opened the first four events of the women's heptathlon Friday in Eugene.

Bonds opened with top-five finishes in the 100-meter hurdles (13.60) and high jump (1.75 meters), rising as high as fourth place.

But the senior from Las Vegas struggled to 21st in the shot put with a throw of 11.31 meters (37-1 1/4) and 17th in the 200 (24.71) to fall to 12th in the multi-event finale. She'll open Saturday's final day with 3,482 points, 263 behind freshman leader JaiCieonna Gero-Holt of Illinois.

The NCAA women's championships begin Saturday at 12:30 p.m. MT with BYU's Kaiah Fisher and the discus. BYU teammates Carmen Alder and Carlee Hansen will run in the 1,500-meter final at 5:12 p.m. MT, while Taylor Lovell and Raygan Dimond will lead the 3,000-meter steeplechase final at 6:24 p.m. MT.

BYU freshman and collegiate record holder Jane Hedengren will get another shot at an outdoor national title in the women's 5,000 meters at 7:55 p.m. MT, when the former Timpview High star will face New Mexico's Pamela Kosgei and 10,000-meter champion Mercyline Kirwa of Iowa State.

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