BYU and Colorado State Win Mountain West Conference Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships

New Mexico's Jeremy Johnson and Colorado State's April Thomas win individual titles

Women's 6K Team Results | Women's 6K Overall Results | Men's 8K Team Results | Men's 8K Overall Results

Oct. 27, 2007

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The BYU men's and Colorado State women's cross country teams captured the 2007 Mountain West Conference Cross Country Championship hosted by the University of New Mexico, on Saturday at the campus' North Golf Course.

The BYU men's and Colorado State women's cross country teams captured the 2007 Mountain West Conference Cross Country Championship hosted by the University of New Mexico, on Saturday at the campus' North Golf Course.

The BYU men captured their eighth championship crown in nine years with 46 team points, placing all five scoring runners in the top-20. The battle for second came down to a tight finish resulting in New Mexico finishing just one point ahead of Air Force at 51 points. Colorado State (105 points), Wyoming (118 points) and TCU (167 points) placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.

"We had some guys step up today. I lost my top guy when we had to pull him at the 5K mark for a chronic back injury, so my eighth and ninth guys ended up stepping up and finished fourth and fifth for us," head BYU coach and 2007 MWC Men's Coach of the Year Ed Eyestone said. "It's a team sport and a lot of times we think running is individual, but today was a team effort and we had some guys step up. We're just overall happy to end up taking the conference championship."

New Mexico senior Jeremy Johnson took the men's individual title, finishing the 8K leg in 24:23, nearly 25 seconds faster than the rest of the field. Johnson, who holds the regular season record for the men's 8K, set the pace at 4:55. His time ranks sixth in alltime conference championship history, following closely behind fellow Lobo harrier Matt Gonzales, who ran the 2001 course in 24:19.

"I wanted to give people a good show here with my last home town race for cross country. That's something special, that's a dream come true," Johnson said after the race. "From the very get-go, I didn't want to mess around. I said we're going to have an honest race, so we went with a good pace and it was pretty simple."

Wyoming's Mark Korir, a junior, was the race's runner-up for the second consecutive year with a time of 24:48. Senior Dustin Bybee, who has placed in the top-ten at the conference championship all four years of his collegiate career, led the BYU Cougars to their 2007 title, coming in third at 24:55. Air Force junior Matt Williams (fourth, 24:57) and BYU senior Chandler Goodwin (fifth, 25:00) rounded out the top-five.

For the first time in the nine-year conference history, the Colorado State Rams captured the women's title with 33 points. The Rams have been runners-up to the BYU Cougars for seven out of the past eight years, most recently coming within nine points of the defending champions in 2006. The Cougars placed second with 39 points, while New Mexico (94 points), Wyoming (118 points), Utah (130 points), Air Force (160 points), UNLV (204 points), TCU (224 points) and San Diego State (229 points) rounded out the third through ninth-places.

2007 MWC Women's Coach of the Year Bryan Berryhill also attributed his squad's win to a team effort. "We had our number one girl kind of falter and the rest of our girls stepped it up in an amazing team effort. It took all those girls to do what they could. The course was great and the competition on the women's side was superb as well."

Clocking in at 21:20, Colorado State senior April Thomas led the women's 6K race, earning herself Athlete of the Year honors. Fellow Ram Kirsten Anthony, a junior, followed closely behind to finish with a time of 21:22. BYU took the next two places, turning in sophomore Katie Bowen (21:28) and freshman Angela Wagner (21:33) for third and fourth-place, respectively. Junior Lobo Michelle Corrigan placed fifth with a time of 21:35.

"It's always a tough race when it comes to CSU and BYU," Thomas said. "We've got ten girls on each side and all the other teams out there but for me it was important to stay close. I knew where I needed to be, which was at the top and if they made a move, I needed to make a move and if I wanted to try to take it, I needed to make a move with about 2K left."

The championships were re-located to New Mexico from San Diego State due to poor air quality caused by the burning wildfires.