BYU cross-country teams sweep crowns

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The BYU cross country teams came away with a clean sweep again at the Mountain West Conference Championships on Saturday at Collindale Golf Course here.

For the 18th consecutive season the women's team captured the conference title, while the men bring home their eighth crown in nine seasons.

"Overall we had a fantastic effort," women's head coach Patrick Shane said. "We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish."

Sophomore Heidi Magill and junior Josh Rohatinsky led their teams to titles by picking up the individual Mountain West Conference crowns.

The women's first place finish came with all five of their scoring runners placing in the top-10, giving them a solid score of 23. Magill's victory came with an all-time MWC Championship record 6K time of 20:42.4. Chelsea Smith McKell (20:59.2, second), Breanne Sandberg (21:11.1, fourth), Ann Heiner (21:25.8, seventh) and Amy Fowler (21:28.8, ninth) completed the scoring for the Cougars.

Colorado State finished third with 75 points, followed by Wyoming in fourth (121 points), San Diego State in fifth (134), Air Force sixth (138) and Utah seventh (189). TCU (192) and UNLV (274) finished eighth and ninth, respectively.

After winning the individual championship, Magill was honored as MWC Runner of the Year.

Utah's Chelsea DiGrazia finished 27th overall. Her 22:24 was a personal best by about 30 seconds. Other Ute finishers were Ashlee Warnick, 34th in 22:39, Nicki Hugie, 43rd in 23:16, Kellie Anderson, 47th at 23:31 and Kristin Taylor (55th, 24:03) and Janett Ern (58th,24:33). In addition, Magill was named First Team All-MWC. Joining her were teammates McKell, Sandberg and Heiner. Second Team honors went to Fowler and Ann Marie Thomas. Besides being named to the Second Team All-MWC, Fowler picked up Freshman of the Year honors after her performance.

On the men's side, the No. 6 Cougars finished with 27 points, while runner-up Colorado State finished with a point total of 62, Air Force claimed third-place with 73 points, followed by Wyoming in fourth (108 points), New Mexico in fifth (119) and TCU in sixth (140).

Rohatinsky paced the field with a time of 24:12.9. His time was the second fastest clocking in MWC Championship history. By way of scoring for the Cougars, Rohatinsky was followed by Chandler Goodwin (24:38.7, fourth), Dustin Bybee (24:39.9, fifth), Josh McAdams (24:47.1, seventh) and Tyrel Jensen (24:56.6, tenth).

By picking up the individual victory, Rohatinsky was also crowed as MWC Runner of the Year and named to the All-MWC First Team. Also earning First Team honors were Goodwin, Bybee and McAdams. Second Team honorees were Tyrel Jensen and Jacob Gustoffson. Gustoffson was also honored as Freshman of the Year.

Coach Eyestone was also awarded with his third MWC Coach of the Year award.

BYU has two races remaining. The Mountain Regional is up next and the Cougars will be running in front of a home crowd as they host the event. The meet will be at East Bay Golf Course in Provo on Nov. 12.