MEET RECAP: 2020 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships
Champions were crowned at the 2020 NCAA DI Cross Country Championships on Monday, held at the OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
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Keep reading below to find out what happened!
Men’s Story
It took 16 months for Northern Arizona to return to the top, and they did it impressively by winning the men’s crown with 60 points – merely the lowest scoring total in the men’s race since 2005.
The Lumberjacks, who won their fourth title in five years, did most of their damage with a strong showing at the top, placing four runners among the first nine – Nico Young (4th), Blaise Ferro (6th), Abdihamid Nur (7th) and Luis Grijalva (9th). Brodey Hasty (44th) completed the scoring for NAU.
Impressive in second place was Notre Dame with 87 points – the highest team finish for the Irish since winning in 1957. Notre Dame, which came in ranked ninth in the National Coaches’ Poll, placed all five of its scoring runners in the top-23.
Completing the top-5 were Oklahoma State (142), Arkansas (181) and Stanford (194). For the host Cowboys, it was their first podium finish since 2013, while the Razorbacks returned for the first time since 2005.
Conner Mantz of BYU broke open the individual race in the last 2k of the 10,000-meter course, then kept increasing his lead to win in 29:26.1. The victory by Mantz made him and his coach – 1984 champ Ed Eyestone – the first coach-athlete pair to win individual crowns in this meet.
Adriaan Wildschutt of Florida State was second in 29:48.2 ahead of Iowa State’s Wesley Kiptoo (29:54.9). NAU’s Young was 4th in 29:58.3 ahead of Patrick Dever of Tulsa (30:00.0).
Women’s Story
BYU won the wait.
The Cougars romped at the OSU Cross Country Course, winning by 65 points (96-161) for the largest margin of victory since 2012.
It was BYU’s fifth team title and first since 2001. They were led by three top-20 finishers as Anna Camp was 11th, followed closely by Aubrey Frentheway in 15th and Whittni Orton in 17th.
BYU’s depth continued to shine as they put their Nos. 4 and 5 runners – Sara Musselman (33rd) and McKenna Lee (44th) – across the line well before another program’s fourth finisher.
NC State (161) was runner-up, the program’s highest finish since they claimed the same position in 1987 and 2001. Stanford (207) and Michigan State (212) completed the podium, while Minnesota (239) followed in fifth for its highest-ever finish.
Mercy Chelangat of Alabama won the individual crown, covering the 6000-meter course in 20:01.1 to give the Crimson Tide its first individual men’s or women’s title in the meet.
Taylor Roe of host Oklahoma State was second in 20:06.7 with Alabama’s Amaris Tyynismaa claiming third (20:11.8) ahead of Mahala Norris of Air Force (20:11.8) and NC State’s Hannah Steelman (20:14.9).
