BYU's Enjoys 'Butterfly Moment' After Surviving Challenge From West Virginia For 6th Title; Lemngole Moves Up One Spot To Seize Title With Late Burst

By David Woods for DyeStat

Murray Schukar PHOTOS | Carol Chen PHOTOS | Kevin Dorsey PHOTOS

RESULTS | INTERVIEWS

VERONA, Wis. – Unless you follow college running minutiae, and specifically BYU, you might have never heard of Carmen Alder. This is cross country, though.

“That’s the beauty of this sport,” BYU coach Diljeet Taylor said. “All five, seven, matter.”

One year ago, Alder crawled across the finish at the NCAA Cross-Country Championships. She was 246th. She beat one runner.

BYU was ranked No. 3 and finished 14th. Taylor called it the lowest moment of her coaching career.

“We failed last year. We failed miserably,” BYU runner Lexy Halladay-Lowry said.

On Saturday, it was altogether different. Everyone, and everything, mattered.

Alder was an All-American. So was Halladay-Lowry. And the Cougars were national champions.

It was what these women called a “butterfly moment.” They all wore butterfly pendants. It all grew out of last November’s rubble.

“I remember coming back to my team and saying, ‘Just when the caterpillar thinks the world is ending, she becomes a butterfly,” Taylor said.

In the first half of a gender sweep, the BYU women seized the lead in the fifth kilometer and ran to their sixth NCAA victory – second only to Villanova’s nine – at Wisconsin’s Thomas Zimmer Championship Course.

No. 1-ranked BYU, which won in March 2021 after going without a title since 2002, finished with 147 points.

No. 4 West Virginia was second with 164. Providence was third – up eight spots from a No. 11 ranking – with 183. No. 3 Northern Arizona, the leader through 4K, was fourth with 206.

Just off the podium were No. 2 Oregon (210) and No. 8 Stanford (213).

North Carolina State, after three straight NCAA championships, came in ranked 13th and finished eighth. Notre Dame came in ranked No. 5 and finished 16th.

Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, after finishing second last year, pulled away at the end to become individual champion in 19 minutes, 21.0 seconds over 6,000 meters.

New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei, bidding to be the first freshman winner in 39 years, was second in 19:27.8. Florida’s Hilda Olemomoi, an Alabama teammate with Lemngole last year, was third in 19:28.7.

For BYU, this triumph was anything but inevitable.

The Cougars were without injured Jenna Hutchins, who was sixth in this year’s NCAA 10,000 meters. And Halladay-Lowry was “pretty much a mermaid” all month, Taylor said. Because of injury, Halladay-Lowry was in the pool more than she was on the ground.

“We needed her today to do what she did,” Taylor said. “I coach her, and I’m in shock that that finish is what happened.”

In team scoring, BYU was 11-23-31-33-49.

Halladay-Lowry finished 14th, Riley  Chamberlain 31st and Alder 39th – All-Americans in the top 40.

The Cougars’ plan was simple but effective: urgency early, patience middle, urgency late.

“With it being an imperfect season, but to have the perfect race, it’s the butterfly moments,” Halladay-Lowry said.

The top three sweep by Kenyans was expected, irrespective of order. Lemnogle was content to let Stanford’s Amy Bunnage lead at 2K and 3K, Kosgei at 4K and 5K.

When Lemnogle accelerated with about 400 meters left, the gap grew quickly.

“My first 3K felt so good,” she said. “When I crossed the 4K line, I thought I have to push the pace and go my own way, and I did it.”

Bunnage, a 19-year-old Australian sophomore, was fourth in 19:31.1.

North Carolina State sophomore Grace Hartman, of Oakwood, Ohio, was top American in fifth, clocking 19:39.5. She and her teammates were greeted afterward by Katelyn Tuohy, the Wolf Pack’s 2022 champion.

“Nothing was guaranteed this season,” Hartman said. “We came away with eighth, and honestly, it’s just as special as it was last year.”

 West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe, a Canadian Olympian in the steeplechase, was sixth in 19:41.2. Arkansas soph Paityn Noe, another 19-year-old, was seventh in 19:42.3.

Noe, a former Iowa high school basketball player, has been one of the revelations of this fall. She said she coped with injuries last season but had a good summer of training.

“Going into the season, I had expectations to compete with the top group,” she said.

Noe was ninth in the NCAA 10,000 last June. She was seventh at pre-nationals, third in the SEC (behind Lemngole and Olemomoi), first in the South Central Regional She climbed from 10th to seventh in the closing kilometer at NCAAs.

Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.