Why BYU winning the Big 12 cross country title was a stunning development

Minutes after the BYU men’s cross country team upset No. 1-ranked Oklahoma State Friday to win the Big 12 Conference championships, Coach Ed Eyestone made a phone call to Olympic marathoner Conner Mantz.
“It’s upset weekend,” he told him. “Now it’s your turn to do it.”
Mantz and training partner Clayton Young, both former BYU national champions, will compete in Sunday’s New York Marathon, their first race since they finished eighth and ninth, respectively, in the Olympic marathon.
“They’re going to try to continue our winning ways,” said Eyestone. “It’s been 10 weeks since the Olympics and Conner is running amazingly well.
“Clayton has had a good build, too. Conner could break into the top three and Clayton the top five. I told Conner that we upset the East Africans today and now it’s his turn.”
The upset of Oklahoma State, a team built with East African runners (Tanzanians, Ethiopians, Kenyans), was a stunning development in running circles.
OSU returned all of its runners from last year’s NCAA championship team and added other top Africans since then. Eyestone was realistic in the days leading up to the competition.
“Oklahoma State is going to be tough to beat and our athletes know it, as well,” said the coach. “We can compete with the Kenyans —they make us better — but when you have 6-7 Kenyans it can be pretty daunting. The conference meet will be as difficult as the NCAA championships.”
BYU placed five runners in the top 12 in a field of more than 110 athletes. The score: BYU 41, Oklahoma State 52, Iowa State 62.
Casey Clinger, a senior from American Fork, finished third in the 8,000-meter race with a time of 22:08.2. James Corrigan, the Olympic steeplechaser, was seventh, followed by Joey Nokes (8th), Creed Thompson (11th) and Lucas Bons (12th).
Oklahoma State’s top three finishers are from Kenya and their fifth-fastest performer is from Morocco. Of BYU’s top five finishers, three are from Utah, one from Ohio and the other from California.
BYU, ranked No. 2 in the national polls before the race, undoubtedly will be ranked No. 1 when the new rankings are released next week.
The BYU women’s team is already ranked No. 1. It also won the Big 12 championships, as BYU became the fourth school in Big 12 history to sweep the men’s and women’s titles in the same competition, joining Colorado (11 times), Iowa State (2017, 2018) and Oklahoma State (2015, 2021, 2022).
BYU has won three Big 12 championships since joining the league last year, and all three of them are courtesy of the cross country program.
BYU placed five runners in the women’s top 13 to win its second straight conference championship. Lexie Lowry, Riley Chamberlain and Taylor Rohatinsky finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, while Carmen Alder was 10th and Destiny Everett 13th.
BYU finished with 41 points, followed by West Virginia with 60 and Utah with 86.
The path to the NCAA championships will resume in two weeks with the NCAA regional competitions.