BYU cross country: BYU's Perry leads Cougars to 9th

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — BYU men's cross-country came in ninth at the NCAA National Championships while Kyle Perry earned his third All-American title as the Cougars led a large contingent of Utahns in the race.

Coming in 10th out of 255 runners in the men's 10K overall, Perry finished first for the Cougars with his best race of the season, 29:47.1.

To take the No. 10 spot, Perry out-leaned the No. 11 finisher Patrick Smyth, running for Notre Dame, who finished in 29.47.2. Smyth, a Utah native, went to Judge Memorial and ran alongside another Judge Memorial graduate, Luke Puskedra, who placed fifth running for Oregon with a time of 29:27.

Perry's 10th place finish is the best Cougar finish since Josh Rohatinsky in 2006. Other than Rohatinsky, Perry's finish is the best since that of his coach, Eyestone, in 1982-1984.

Following behind Perry, finishing 50th overall was senior Stephan Shay with a time of 30:34. After him was senior Jacob Gustafsson, 95th, with a time of 30:46; Dan Hinckley, 84th, in 30:58; and junior Ryan Merriman, 102nd, closing in the top five for the Cougars with a time of 31:06.

Junior Rich Nelson finished 120th in 31:17, followed by Nate Ogden, 165th, with a final time of 31:50.

BYU's Angela Wagner, the lone representative for the women's team, dropped out of the race due to a medical condition of exercise-induced asthma.

Alyssa Abbott, from the University of Utah, took 76th. She finished the 6K race in 21:00.5, a 14-second improvement from the pre-national meet there in October where she finished in 21:14.

"This was an amazing race and I couldn't be more proud. Alyssa) is without a doubt one of the most elite athletes in the nation," said head coach Kyle Kepler.

Abbott, a junior and native of Reno, Nev., competed in the championship race despite a painful IT band injury. After the first mile of the race, the Ute was pacing herself in the middle of the pack at about 180th-place. She clocked in at 6:49 at the 2K mark. At the 3K mark, Abbott advanced 100 spots as she found her power.

She was in 90th-place after 13 minutes and 52 seconds of competing and only had 2,000 meters to go. In the last 500 meters of the race, the Ute went from 84th in the pack, to a 76th-place finish. The only other Mountain West Conference contender that topped Abbott was Nicky Archer from New Mexico (56th, 20:53.0)

Abbott was the first representative from the Utes since 2004 when Elise Greenwood-Bahr had the honor.