No. 2 BYU Men Handle No. 1 Oklahoma State; No. 1 BYU Women Repeat With Win Over No. 4 West Virginia; Musau, McCabe Claim Individual Crowns

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Bert Richardson photos

RESULTS

The BYU men’s and women’s cross country teams completed a team title sweep and Oklahoma State’s Brian Musau and West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe won individual titles on Friday at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships at the Cottonwood Creek Golf Course in Waco, Texas.

The No. 2 BYU men outlasted No. 1 Oklahoma State 41-52 in a clash of the nation’s top two teams, with all five BYU scorers finishing in the top 12 to help claim the program’s first Big 12 title since joining the conference in the fall of 2023.

Casey Clinger guided BYU from the front once again, earning a third-place individual finish in 22 minutes, 9.1 seconds for the 8-kilometer race. Olympian James Corrigan finished 20 seconds behind Clinger in seventh in 22:29.64 and Joey Nokes followed in eighth in 22:30.1 to put three Cougars in the top 10.

Creed Thompson and Lucas Bons crossed the finish line together, delivering 11th and 12th place finishes, respectively, for BYU in 22:37 to cap off the scoring.

Musau guided the second-place Cowboys, winning a second consecutive conference title in 22:06.9, fending off Texas Tech’s Solomon Kipchoge by less than two seconds in 22:08.5.

Denis Kipngetich and Victor Shitsama came away with top 10 individual finishes for Oklahoma State, with Kipngetich running 22:29.2 for sixth and Shitsama running 22:30.9 for ninth.

Iowa State’s Robin Kwemoi Bera finished fourth in 22:16.64 and Said Mechaal rounded out the top 10 in 22:35.51, leading No. 4 Iowa State to a third-place team finish with 62 points.

Kipchoge, along with Ernest Cheruiyot finishing fifth in 22:25.78, led No. 30 Texas Tech to fourth with 101 points.

No. 24 Colorado scored 122 points to finish fifth, with Dean Casey in 16th in 22:52.84.

The top-ranked BYU women placed nine runners in the top 30, including all five scorers in the top 15, to complete back-to-back team title wins with 41 points.

Nine seconds separated the Cougars top five runners, with Lexy Halladay-Lowry finishing first for BYU in fifth in 19:50.4 for the 6k race, followed by Riley Chamberlain (19:54.2, 6th), Taylor Rohatinsky (19:55.2, 7th), Carmen Alder (19:58.7, 10th) and Destiny Everett (19:59.5, 13th).

No. 4 West Virginia matched its highest finish ever at the Big 12 meet, finishing second to BYU with 60 points behind top three individual finishes from Ceili McCabe and Joy Naukot.

McCabe collected her third Big 12 individual cross country title, and first since 2022, in 19:02.60 and Naukot finished third in 19:18.09 for the Mountaineers.

Arizona State’s Judy Chepkoech gave the Sun Devils a top-five performer, running 19:32.54 to finish fourth.

Iowa State’s Maelle Porcher led the Cyclones with a ninth-place run un 19:58.18.

No. 6 Utah finished third in its Big 12 Cross Country Championship debut, scoring 86 points. Erin Vringer guided the Utes with an eighth-place run in 19:56.48.

Josphine Mwaura ran 20:01.9 to finish 14th for No. 18 Oklahoma State, who finished fourth with 103 points.

Individual runner-up Juliet Cherubet of Texas Tech ran 19:16.84 to help the Red Raiders fifth with 155 points.