What to know about No. 1-ranked BYU women, No. 2 BYU men ahead of Big 12 XC championships

After sending seven runners with BYU ties to the Olympic Games last summer, the Cougars are still asserting themselves on the running scene. Heading into this weekend’s Big 12 cross-country championships, BYU is ranked No. 1 nationally in the women’s polls and No. 2 in the men’s polls.
The Big 12 competition will be held Friday morning in Waco, Texas. The BYU women won the conference championships last year; the men were second.
The BYU women were ranked sixth when the 2024 season began before climbing to No. 5 and then No. 2. They moved to No. 1 after delivering a dominant performance at the pre-national meet in Wisconsin two weeks ago. The team was awarded all 11 first-place votes in the coaches’ poll.
Lexy Halladay-Lowry, Carmen Alder, and Jenna Hutchins finished among the top 20 at pre-nationals in Wisconsin three weeks ago. Four of their teammates finished in the top 50.
The Cougars return seven runners from last season’s Big 12 championship team by placing four runners in the top 10 — Lowry, Hutchins, Carmen Alder and Riley Chamberlain.
The Cougars finished a disappointing eighth and 14th in the last two NCAA championships, but they won the 2020 championship and finished second in 2019 and 2021.
The University of Utah will enter Friday’s competition with a No. 6 national ranking. The Utes won the Dellinger Invitational in Oregon two weeks ago by placing five runners in the top 10. Erin Vringer was second, Mckaylie Caesar third, Morgan Jensen fifth, Katarzyna Nowakowska sixth and Annastasia Peters ninth.
The men’s Big 12 championship race will be a preview of the NCAA championships. Three of the top four teams in the nation will compete in the Big 12 championships — No. 1 Oklahoma State, No. 2 BYU, No. 4 Iowa State.
“The Big 12 championships this year is definitely the conference championship of the country,” said BYU head coach Ed Eyestone.
In an almost unheard display of dominance, the BYU men took the top five places — and seven of the top 10 — in the Bill Dellinger meet in Oregon. In that race, BYU finished with a perfect 15 points; Oregon was second with 97. Casey Clinger, who was fifth in the U.S. Olympic track and field trials at 10,000 meters, won the Dellinger meet, followed by Olympic steeplechaser James Corrigan, Aiden Troutner, Creed Thompson and Joey Nokes.
BYU has finished third in the last two NCAA championships. The Cougars won the NCAA championships in 2019 and were second in 2018.