Cougar women finish 8th, men 13th at nationals

The BYU men's and women's cross country teams entered the NCAA championship meet on Monday with identical No. 8 rankings. While the women upheld theirs with an eighth-place finish, the men slipped to 13th.

"I guess the pollsters knew what they were talking about," women's coach Patrick Shane said.

Chelsea Smith-McKell and Josh Rohatinsky led their teams, and were each named all-Americans for finishing in the top 30. Smith-McKell finished 18th in team scoring (24th overall), while Rohatinsky was fourth (sixth overall).

Runners who qualified individually and ran without their teams were counted in the overall placement, but left out when team scores were calculated.

"It's a real honor for her, and a real honor for us," Shane said of Smith-McKell's performance.

Smith-McKell ran the 6K course in her best time of the year, 20:24. She was followed by Heidi Magill in 29th place (39th overall), Breanne Sandberg in 62nd (83rd overall), Amy Fowler in 74th (99th overall), and Anne Heiner in 105th (139th overall).

Ann Marie Thomas (122nd, 158th overall) and Kristen Ogden (133rd, 169th overall) finished in non-scoring positions.

Shane said he was pleased by his team's second consecutive eighth-place finish, and said the team may have done even better in other years.

"Under different circumstances, we might have placed higher, but this was a very tough race and there was some great competition," he said. "This was one of the toughest races I've seen in years."

Two other local runners also competed in the race as individuals. Weber State freshman Katie Bowen finished 81st, 11th among freshmen, and Utah State senior Tiffany Strickland was 98th, the highest finish by an Aggie woman since 1992.

Stanford won the women's title, while Colorado, which barely edged the BYU women at last week's Mountain Regional, finished second. Duke, Arizona State and Illinois rounded out the top five.

In the men's race, Rohatinsky was followed by fellow BYU runners Chandler Goodwin in 28th (36th overall), Josh McAdams in 101st (131st overall), Nick McCombs in 139th (172nd overall) and Jacob Gustafsson in 144th (177th overall).

Dustin Bybee (149th, 182nd overall) and Tyrel Jensen (162nd, 197th overall) finished in the non-scoring spots.

Utah State senior Trever Ball, running individually, finished 47th.