Lexy Halladay-Lowry Wins Women's Race For BYU At Joe Piane Invitational; Notre Dame Men Beat NAU as Ernest Cheruiyot Wins

By Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

File photo courtesy of Northern Arizona

The No. 2-ranked Northern Arizona women pulled out the win in the women’s Blue 5k race with 52 points despite holding  out a pair of top runners on Friday morning at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational. 

Sophomore Karrie Baloga and senior Maggi Congdon led the way for the Lumberjacks, finishing seventh and ninth in 16:16.2 and 16:23.6, respectively. Juniors Nikita Moore and Alex Carlson and freshman Ava Mitchell formed a tight pack in the latter half of the race, and they finished in 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively.

Veteran returners Elise Stearns and Ali Upshaw did not race.

The BYU women surged late to take second with 65 points. At the 1k mark, the Cougars were fifth with 193 points, and their fifth runner was in 67th place. By the end, all of their five scoring runners were in the top 30, led by Lexy Halladay-Lowry, who got the individual win in 15:57.5.

Host Notre Dame was in the lead at the 1k mark, but the Fighting Irish slipped to second shortly thereafter, and despite slashing their point total in the last two miles, fell to third place. Seniors Siona Chisholm, Emily Covert, and Erin Strzelecki led the way for the team in fifth, eighth and 14th place, respectively, followed by sophomore Gretchen Farley in 21st and freshman Arianne Olson in 22nd.

Highly touted freshmen Isabel Allori and Mary Bonner Dalton, who ran unattached in this race, finished close behind in 23rd and 24th.

No other teams were particularly close to the top three. Liberty finished fourth with 189 points and Boise State rounded out the top five with 204. Division 2 powerhouse Adams State finished seventh. Michigan State, ranked 25th in the nation coming into this race, finished in a disappointing ninth, falling all the way from fourth at the 1k mark.

Texas Tech sophomore Juliet Cherubet, who won her first two races this fall, took second in 16:03.5, while Oklahoma freshman Leah Jeruto was third in 16:06.7. BYU’s Jenna Hutchins and Notre Dame’s Chisholm were fourth and fifth, and Kaiya Robertson, a sophomore from Boise State, finished sixth in 16:15.1.

On the men’s side, Notre Dame prevailed in a tight battle with NAU, scoring 55 to NAU’s 68.

The Fighting Irish ran in a tight pack for the duration and finished with a seven-second spread on the scoring five.

Sophomore Ethan Coleman was Notre Dame’s top finisher, running 22:49.0 for eighth place. Sophomores Daelen Ackley and Izaiah Steury were close behind in 10th and 11th, respectively. Freshman Drew Griffith made his highly anticipated debut, running 22:53.9 for 12th place.

NAU, meanwhile, was led by senior David Mullarkey, who finished in fourth place with a time of 22:36.9. Sophomore Justin Keyes and junior Kang Nyoak finished in 13th and 15th place, respectively, but they dropped a collective nine spots over the last 2k.

Senior Corey Gorgas did his best to counteract that trend, moving up 13 spots in the last 2k to finish 16th, but juniors Colin Sahlman and Cael Grotenhuis also dropped a few spots each in the last stretch.

Perhaps just as exciting as the team battle was the individual fight between freshmen Ernest Cheruiyot, Evans Kurui and Patrick Kiprop. None of them are true “freshmen,” per se, but their first NCAA seasons have been full of fireworks.

All three finished under 22:30, with Cheruiyot of Texas Tech taking the win in 22:20.3. Kurui from Washington State finished second in 22:24.7, while Kiprop of Cincinnati was third in 22:27.0. 

At the beginning of the race, it looked like Cheruiyot and his Texas Tech teammates would run away with the team title; the Red Raiders had four runners in the top 10 at the 1k mark. That pack fell apart as the race went on, eventually finishing seventh with 224 points.

California Baptist University took third in the race with 112 points, led by two in the top 10, and Wyoming was fourth with 150 points.

Michigan State rounded out the top five with 167 points, while Boise State finished sixth with 194.