NCAA track and field: Lexy Halladay-Lowry paces BYU women with steeplechase runner-up

PROVO — Lexy Halladay-Lowry picked a great way to wrap up her collegiate career.

The BYU senior set an all-time school record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase Saturday night, claiming national runner-up honors in 9 minutes, 8.68 seconds at Heyward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Halladay-Lowry, who won a pair of team national championships in cross country, finished behind only Alabama sophomore Doris Lemngole — who set a new collegiate and meet record in 8:58.15.

Fast? Blazing fast. Lemngole's time is just 12 seconds off the current world record set by Kenya's Beatrice Chepkoech of 8:44.32 in 2023; and the fastest time in a women's steeplechase in the world this year now belongs to the NCAA cross country champion.

"She's an incredible competitor," Halladay-Lowry said of Lemngole. "She's one of the best in the world. ... It's been a great experience to get to race her and have the opportunity. I'm super happy that I had the opportunity to race with her."

But the senior from Meridian, Idaho, who also holds the program's all-time outdoor 5,000-meter record in 14:52.93, as well as the indoor 3,000 in 8:40.60, tallied her second outdoor All-American honor as the only harrier who could keep up.

"It was a great five years," said Halladay-Lowry, choking back emotion. "I'm really proud of myself for the people I met, the relationships I made. When I came in as a freshman, my first steeple I think I ran 10:06. To end with a 9:08, I'm proud of myself and I'm super grateful for my teammates and my coaches. It's bittersweet. I'm really excited for the next thing, but I gave my heart to this."

Halladay-Lowry's national runner-up paced the Cougars to 18th place overall with 16 points. Georgia won the women's title with 73 points, followed by USC, Texas A&M, Washington and Illinois.

Utah State sophomore Shelby Jensen finished seventh in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:36.61, and BYU sophomore Taylor Lovell added a top-10 finish for the Cougars with a ninth-place effort in 9:39.43.

The Cougars weren't done, either.

Meghan Hunter added a third-place finish in the 800, when the senior from Provo clocked a 1:59.03 — just missing her own all-time school record of 1:58.95 set a few weeks ago at the NCAA West preliminary round.

Stanford's Roisin Willis set a meet record with a winning time of 1:58.13 in the event.

Sami Oblad also claimed All-American honors, finishing seventh in the 400 in 51.57 seconds — the highest finish in a flat sprint (100, 200 or 400) in BYU women's track and field history, and just under a second off her school-record time of 50.49 set at the BYU Robison Invitational earlier this year.

Jenna Hutchins added 11th in the 5,000 meters in 15:40.87, and Gretchen Hoekstre took 22nd with a discus throw of 50.46 meters (165 feet, 7 inches) for All-America honorable mention honors for the Cougars.

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