Who won the NCAA Cross Country Championships? Northern Arizona men and BYU women landed the respective team titles at the delayed 2020 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships at the Oklahoma State Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Okla., on Monday.
NORTHERN ARIZONA PACK IT WELL TO WIN MEN’S CROWN
After placing four runners in the Top 10 in the 10K, Northern Arizona dominated the men’s field to win with an impressive score of 60 points, as freshman Nico Young led the way with a fourth-place finish in 29:58.3.
Blaise Ferro (30:02.0) ended 6th, while Abdihamid Nur (30:05.3) finished 7th and Luis Grijalva (30:10.2) came home 9th to pave the way for the Lumberjack who won back the title they lost to BYU in 2019.
Notre Dame, which entered the championships ranked No. 9, ran impressively to collect second place with 87 points, with host Oklahoma State also enjoying a very good day after taking a third-place finish with 142 points.
No. 3 Arkansas ended the meeting fourth with 181 points, while No. 4 ranked Stanford was 5th in the team race with 194 points. Defending champion BYU which came into the championships ranked No. 1 could only manage 7th this year with 254 points.
BYU junior runner Conner Mantz broke away from his rivals in the latter part of the race to secure the individual men’s title with an impressive time of 29:26.1 on what was a very challenging course to compete.
Adriaan Wildschutt of Florida State crossed the line in 29:48 for second place, while pre-nationals favorite Wesley Kiptoo of Iowa State was pushed back to third in 29:54.
BYU WOMEN WINS NATIONAL TITLE
Meanwhile, the women’s team title successfully went to BYU with the Cougars scoring 96 points on the day after placing three finishers in the Top 20.
Senior Anna Camp led the way for BYU with an 11th place finish in the 6K with 20:28, while sophomore Aubrey Frentheway (20:34) was 15th and Whittni Orton (20:35) came home 17th.
NC State, which threatened early, was eventually pushed back to second with 161 points, with Stanford (207), Michigan State (212), and Minnesota (239) rounding out the Top 5 teams.
Mercy Chelangat of Alabama won the SEC Conference’s first individual national title when she clocked 20:01 to defeat Taylor Roe of Oklahoma State (20:06) and her Alabama teammate Amaris Tyynismaa (20:10) who finished third.
