BYU women runners are reloading, not rebuilding

During the 24 years Patrick Shane has coached the BYU women's cross country team, the Cougar women have only been absent from the NCAA Championships twice.

In the last seven years, the Cougars have finished the season either No. 1 or No. 2 at nationals on the legs of 30 All-American distance runners.

So when a powerhouse program prepares for an upcoming season with three of its top four runners gone, one would think a coach would fret about keeping up his team's legacy, but not Shane.

"We've never had to rebuild," he said. "We just reload."

Coming off a 2003 season that ended five seconds too late, The BYU women's cross country team will have big roles to fill with plenty of athletes ready to step in.

The Cougars were hoping to only have to replace two of their top seven runners from last year's team, who's combined times in the NCAA Championships were five seconds behind Stanford. But they also lost two-time All-American Kassi Andersen last weekend for the year with a broken pelvis she sustained in a biking accident. BYU is also without three-time All-American Micheala Mannova and Breanne Sandberg, who graduated and left on an LDS mission, respectively.

BYU's reloading process for this season started in its own back yard last November when Mountain View High standout Heidi Magill committed to the team.

"She's gonna step in and be an All-American her first year and one of our top runners," Shane said. "I think she was the No. 1 recruit in the nation last year."

Magill, who suffered an injury last year in high school, said she was hoping to have to work her way up the BYU ladder, but will do her best to help her team. "If I'm running the way that I feel like I'm running and there are 12 girls ahead of me (on the team), then we're gonna be pretty good," she said.

Shane is also banking on higher results from last year's returners, including one of last year's freshmen, Amber Harper, who made the U.S. junior national cross country team this summer. "Late in the year she matured and understood what it was she needed to do and got her confidence at this level," Shane said.

All-American Laura Turner, who had the best finish of this year's team in last year's NCAAs, is one of three seniors that will push the team. Shane said he was impressed with senior Rena Williams-Chesser's work ethic in the offseason. "She has made a huge improvement," he said. "She paid the price over the summer."

Williams-Chesser said being a senior made her more determined over the past year to make an impact before finishing her collegiate career.

"I have the goal of going to nationals, and after this year it's over," she said. "I have to do it."

Along with Turner and Harper, the Cougars will have experienced runners Suzanna Logan and Lisa Antonelli-Pratt, who also competed in the NCAAs, which Shane said will improve the team where they were weakest last year.

"We're a lot stronger at fifth this year than we were last year," Shane said. "Our top four runners will probably score lower than our top four runners last year, so we're a better team on paper than we were a year ago."