{"id":49606,"date":"2022-06-14T02:11:28","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T02:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/byu-track-and-field-putting-cougar-womens-remarkable-run-in-context\/"},"modified":"2022-06-14T02:11:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T02:11:28","slug":"byu-track-and-field-putting-cougar-womens-remarkable-run-in-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/byu-track-and-field-putting-cougar-womens-remarkable-run-in-context\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU track and field: Putting Cougar women’s remarkable run in context"},"content":{"rendered":"
The remarkable performance of Courtney Wayment in last weekend’s NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship was a reminder that something special is happening in the BYU women’s track and field \/ cross-country program under coach Diljeet Taylor.<\/p>\n
BYU has now won an individual or team national title in the last six NCAA championship events – for cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track.<\/p>\n
Here’s what has happened in the last two years:<\/p>\n
Wayment teamed with Alena and Lauren Ellsworth and Olivia Simister to win the distance medley relay with the second-fastest time in collegiate history. Twenty-four hours later Wayment returned to win the 3,000-meter run. The Cougars finished seventh in the team competition. All 29 of the team’s points came from the distance and middle-distance events. Two days later, the Cougars lined up for the NCAA cross-country championships with an entirely different team\u2026.<\/p>\n
Because of the pandemic, the 2020 NCAA cross-country championships were postponed. It was someone’s bright idea to reschedule them just two days after the indoor track championships. The Cougars had the depth to create two separate teams – one for the track meet and one for the cross-country meet (none of the team’s scorers in the track championships had any remaining cross-country eligibility anyway). All of which made what happened next all the more impressive. The Cougars routed the field in the NCAA cross-country championships and won the team title. They finished 65 points ahead of their nearest rival – the biggest margin since 2012. The score: BYU 96, North Carolina State 161, Stanford 207. The Cougars didn’t have a single runner finish in the top 10, but five finished in the top 41 – Anna Camp 11th, Aubrey Frentheway 15th, Whittni Orton 17th, Sara Musselman 33rd and McKenna Lee 41st. This came on the heels of a second-place finish in the 2019 cross-country championships with an almost entirely different team, again proving the program’s depth.<\/p>\n
Camp, who was not included on anybody’s pre-race favorite list, won the 1,500-meter run, claiming BYU’s first outdoor championship since Nachelle Stewart won the 800-meter run in 2012. Camp, a senior from tiny Fillmore, Utah, was clocked in 4: 08.53, three seconds under her personal best entering the meet and her second school record in three days. Bolstered by their performance in the distance and middle-distance events, the Cougars finished 10th in the team standings. Camp signed a professional contract after the meet.<\/p>\n
Orton, a senior from another tiny Utah town, Panguitch, recorded the second fastest time in the history of the NCAA cross-country meet to win the individual championship, covering the wooded, hilly 6,000-meter (3.7-mile) course in 19: 25.4 (an average of 5: 12.5 per mile). She defeated the next two finishers, Mercy Chelangat of Alabama and unbeaten pre-race favorite Ceili McCabe of West Virginia, by four seconds. Orton is BYU’s first individual women’s cross-country champion. Her win di lei helped BYU finish second in the team competition. Orton signed a professional contract after the race.<\/p>\n
Wayment collected her third national championship by winning the 5,000-meter run, besting runner-up and former high school sensation Katelyn Tuohy of North Carolina State. Claire Seymour was second in the 800, and the Cougars finished eighth in the team competition.<\/p>\n
Wayment ran with the pack for three laps of the 3,000-meter steeplechase and then surged ahead, daring anyone to follow her. No one did. She won the race by a little more than nine seconds and broke the collegiate record by eight seconds with a time of 9: 16.00. It also made her the fifth-fastest American ever, college or pro. The Cougars, with another first-place finish from Ashton Riner in the javelin, finished 10th in the team race. Wayment secured her her fourth national championship in her final collegiate race. She will turn pro this week.<\/p>\n