Admin (Garrett Zatlin)
Aug 20, 20175 min
I'll be honest, that projected scoring five we have listed above is probably not going to be accurate. There is simply so much talent on this squad that it's impossible to say for sure who is going to end up as a scorer for the Cougars. Remember when I said that UVA was the deepest squad in the nation? I lied. BYU is.
The 2016 season was an exciting one if you were a BYU fan. The Cougars started their season at Panorama Farms where they faced off against programs like Syracuse and UVA. Although the Orangemen were favored to take the win, the men from Utah had other plans. The Cougars placed four scorers in the top 10 with their final scorer taking the 13th spot. When the dust settled and the points were tallied, BYU had pulled off the upset and defeated Syracuse, 39 to 44.
Sure, their win over Syracuse and UVA was impressive, but was it just a fluke? Could they really pull off a performance like that again?
Those questions were answered at the Wisconsin Invite where BYU once again asserted themselves as one of the best programs in the nation by placing 3rd in the team standings and taking down Syracuse once again. Montanez, Harper, and Linkletter all placed in the top 25 while freshman Brayden McLelland and junior Spencer Hanson finished 40th and 55th overall. With results like that, no one could argue that the Cougars weren't the real deal.
The NCAA continued to throw different challenges at BYU throughout the postseason. At the West Coast Conference Championships, Brigham Young flexed their depth and out-ran a very deep Portland squad to take the conference title. They later took to the Mountain Region Championships where they would have to battle NAU and Colorado among others. Unfortunately, the Cougars fell to third as Colorado barely edged out BYU for the second auto-lock spot, 76 to 79. That, of course, didn't matter as BYU still had plenty of Kolas points to earn them a spot to NCAA's.
BYU may not have secured an auto-lock spot, but they were still favorites to crack the top four teams and become All-Americans.
Naturally, NCAA's proved to their toughest challenge of the season as their bottom three scorers couldn't quite hang on to their top two. Still, it was a strong all-around performance from everyone as Montanez and Linkletter walked away with All-American honors and their fifth scorer placed a respectable 80th in the team scoring. BYU wouldn't make the podium with their 7th place finish, but they certainly set the stage for a monster 2017 season.
There are many aspects of this BYU team that make them so dangerous. Between their consistent production of front-runners, unfathomable depth, five-star recruits, and legendary coaching, this squad is the complete package.
In 2017, Rory Linkletter will lead this team towards another run at the podium. The rising junior is coming off a spring track season where he earned silver in the NCAA 10k while also throwing down PR's of 7:58, 13:49, and 28:58. His improvements throughout the entirety of his sophomore year has set him up to be an absolute stud this fall.
Behind Linkletter will most likely be Jonathan Harper who had a series of exceptional performances throughout last fall. Add on the fact that Harper owns personal best times of 7:59 and 13:54, and you have the possibility of a Top 50 individual.
Brayden McLelland, a rising sophomore, could potentially be a huge low-stick for this squad in 2017 after putting together a very solid and respectable 2016 season. He was probably one of the most underrated freshmen throughout last fall and should only improve as he continues to learn how to navigate the collegiate system.
Others like Spencer Hanson and Clayton Young are strong options at the four and five spots. Some programs struggle to find a reliable bottom two scorers, but that won't be a concern for BYU when you have two experienced upperclassmen like them.
Yet, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, I'm not convinced that this will end up being the scoring five. There are so many individuals with untapped potential that they could have a role on this squad by season's end.
For those who have read my articles during the track season, you know that I'm a fan of steeplechasers and how their fitness translates to cross country. Luckily for BYU, they had three steeplechasers (all underclassmen) qualify for NCAA's this past spring with personal bests all under 8:50 (Heslington, Carney, Shumway). Any one of those three individuals could have a breakout fall.
At the same time, let's not forget about 2015 stars Dallins Farnsworth and Connor McMillan. Both individuals put together some great performances two years ago, but rarely saw the grass in 2016. They are the x-factors on a team that already has an arsenal of talent.
We could even see the incoming freshmen have a role at some point this season. Prior to college, Clinger, Parker, and Johns had trained next to each other for four years. Their familiarity with each other will help their transition to the collegiate level. Any of those three (especially Clinger) will have the potential to make the lineup this fall.
The final name to mention is Connor Mantz, a high school distance running star who took time off to complete a mission trip before beginning his career at BYU. The redshirt freshman clocked personal bests of 4:07, 8:52, and 14:32 in high school and was one of the biggest recruiting targets for coaches in 2015. The return of Mantz back to BYU's roster makes him a secret weapon that many people have forgotten about.
See what I mean? There are over 14 legitimate guys fighting for a spot in BYU's top seven this fall. With a healthy dose of team competition, don't be surprised if the Cougars are able to find another low-stick to pair up with Rory Linkletter. They did it once with Nico Montanez and they can surely do it again.
If I'm being fair to all of the other teams, I do need to find some potential weaknesses with the Cougars. One of those weaknesses will be the fact that they lost their ace, Nico Montanez. Although Linkletter will be a reliable low-stick, there's no guarantee that BYU can produce another 1-2 punch like they did a year ago.
At the same time, we don't know for sure who will be taking time off to carry out their mission trips. BYU has always accommodated athlete's requests to take mission trips which typically leaves fans like myself curious as to who will actually be returning in the fall.
This mix of speculation and uncertainty has forced me to keep the Cougars no higher than #7 for now.
With that in mind, we saw what happens when you set expectations for BYU: they break them. If everything goes right and this team begins to click, Brigham Young could find themselves on the podium with three other teams. And who knows? Maybe they'll be the ones standing the highest...