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TSR's 2023 Preseason D1 XC Top 25 Rankings (Women): #10 BYU Cougars
- Maura Beattie
- Aug 24, 2023
- 10 min read
Written by Maura Beattie, additional commentary & edits by Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On rare occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
Seeing the BYU Cougars thrive at the NCAA XC Championships is never surprising.
For the last seven cross country seasons, the Cougars have finished among the top-10 teams at the national meet and have finished on the podium three of those times. Not all distance programs can say that...and that's also what greatly scares us about putting them on the fringes of our own top-10 rankings.
The ladies of Provo, Utah are coming off of an 8th place showing from the 2022 NCAA XC Championships. However, a few notable names from their championship lineup are now gone and have graduated. Returners and newcomers will need to fill the shoes of their former teammates, but they all have the tools to do so.
Under the guidance of Coach Diljeet Taylor, as well as the leadership of veterans Aubrey Frentheway and Lexy Halladay-Lowry, the Cougars are once again primed to make a run for the top-10. However, they'll need to ensure that their rising distance talents stay healthy and fully translate their track success to the grass.
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To get a look at the cross country national meet course, BYU made the trek from Utah to Oklahoma to compete at the Cowboy Jamboree back in September. The competition was fierce, but with Frentheway leading the team in 4th place, the Cougars secured a solid 3rd place result behind Oklahoma State and Northern Arizona.
Frentheway’s 4th place was followed up by Halladay-Lowry and McKenna Lee crossing the line in 13th and 18th, respectively. That lethal scoring trio was excellent, but there was a bit of a drop-off between Lee and teammates Carmen Alder (36th) and Riley Chamberlain (42nd). Even so, those were solid backend results for two women who were still relatively young.
A total of 111 points were scored by BYU, well ahead of Colorado’s 155 points for 4th place. The Cougars left Stillwater, Oklahoma with confidence, plenty of Kolas points and valuable experience for when they inevitably returned in late November.
At the Nuttycombe Invitational, the BYU women continued to thrive, putting themselves into the mix from the gun.
Just as she had done at the Cowboy Jamboree, Frentheway used her experience to produce a massive 11th place showing. And only crossing the line five seconds later in 15th place was Lee. However, that duo was missing Halladay-Lowry who faded to 57th place. Luckily, Halladay-Lowry was able to pair up with Alder (63rd) as the two women finished within one second of each other.
Through four scorers, BYU was solid, but Riley Chamberlain, Sadie Sargent and Anna Martin going 106-112-127 wasn’t enough to send the Cougars into the top-three of the team standings as they fell nine points shy of surpassing Northern Arizona.
Even so, a 4th place team finish at Nuttycombe was still a big deal and it set this team up nicely for the postseason. Coach Diljeet Taylor’s ladies just needed to figure out how to close the gap from their top-three to their fourth and fifth runners if they wanted to make some serious damage on the national stage.
As the postseason arrived, the women of BYU easily won the WCC XC Championships, outscoring San Francisco, 30 points to 65 points. Seven (yes, seven) Cougars crossed the line in our top-13.
After a clearly conservative effort from the Cougars at the Mountain Regional XC Championships, the BYU women still had a spot on the starting line at the NCAA XC Championships which meant that they were returning to Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Holding down the top spot for the Cougars each time she raced, Frentheway earned her third consecutive All-American honor with a 32nd place finish. Few low-sticks were as reliable as she was throughout last fall.
However, the real winner for BYU was Halladay-Lowry. The rising redshirt junior, racing at her third cross country national meet, went from finishing 184th (in the winter of 2021) and 164th (in the fall of 2021) to impressing everyone with a massive 34th place finish this time around.
Behind that duo were McKenna Lee and Sadie Sargent, crossing the line together in 70th and 71st, respectively. That was wildly valuable scoring stability and a massive boost for a team that had a few inconsistencies at the backend of their lineup.
The Cougars just had to wait for their final scorer to close out their top-five. It was expected that Alder would continue her scoring reliability, but instead, we saw someone new at that spot in BYU's lineup.
Picking up the pieces for her team was Anastaysia Davis in 111th place. Davis stepped up big time in only her third race of the 2022 cross country season to make the varsity lineup and help solidify the Cougars by picking up an 8th place team finish.
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At first glance, this preseason ranking may seem insulting to BYU...and frankly, it might be. We ranked BYU at a similar spot a few years ago and they went on to win the national title.
Sometimes, we don't always get it right.
The return of Aubrey Frentheway and Lexy Halladay-Lowry is scoring potency that should be feared by any team. Given the historical depth of this program, the BYU women should have no issues putting together a cohesive scoring unit behind that duo later this fall.
And if a major x-factor turns out to be as good as we think they are, then this team may be ranked three to four spots too low.
At the same time, it's important to recognize that this team has to find numerous women to replace the lineup options that they had last year. That's because McKenna Lee, Sadie Sargent and Anna Martin are all gone -- and those former two names were highly impactful talents.
In fact, if you remove only McKenna Lee from the Nuttycombe results, then BYU drops all the way from 4th place to 11th place. That's how important she was to the Cougars.
However, four different women -- Anastaysia Davis, Riley Chamberlain, Carmen Alder and Jenna Hutchins -- are going to be the main runners to watch on this team. The success of the Cougars in 2023 will heavily depend on how just how much better that backend quartet can get over the coming months, especially the latter name.
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After first believing that Aubrey Frentheway had exhausted her collegiate eligibility, we were surprised to learn that she would be back for one more cross country season. That is a huge development for the Cougars given how reliable, consistent and experienced the redshirt senior has proven to be.
As a strength-based runner, Frentheway excels when the race is a grind from the start. With her times of 15:32 (5k) and 32:28 (10k), this Cougar star has remarkable stamina.
By now, we feel like we know what her ceiling is, but that's largely not an issue. Even if she doesn't make any improvements this fall, then she's still going to be giving BYU more value than most teams get out of their own low-sticks.
If Frentheway can get Halladay-Lowry to run on her shoulder, then BYU will have some serious firepower upfront. In fact, their top scoring duo could be even more potent by October and November than they were last fall!
Range is on Halladay-Lowry’s side given her 4:34 (mile) and 15:47 (5k) personal bests, as well as outstanding strength in the steeplechase. The Cougar talent will need to replicate her 2022 cross country season, as well as translate her track success to the grass, to help her team reach the top-10.
Much like Frentheway, it could be nice to see her make improvements this fall, but that's not exactly a necessity, either. As long as she does what she did last year, then this team is in a great spot.
Like we've already mentioned, the Cougars' front-runners have established themselves...but who is going to round out their varsity lineup? That's the biggest question where the answers could vary -- it also requires a lot of speculation.
Alder was reliable at all but one race during the 2022 cross country season and it just so happened that her one "off" day was at the NCAA XC Championships. The rising junior was consistently scoring for her team throughout last fall, crossing the line as the third or fourth Cougar. However, she faltered at the national meet with a 203rd place finish.
It’s going to take Alder returning to her 2022 form to aid in a strong showing by BYU. After running 4:14 for 1500 meters during the outdoor track season, she has clearly refined her speed, although it's unclear how that will translate (if at all) to the grass.
The good news is that BYU knows that they have a reliable scoring option in Alder. However, it's her ceiling on the grass that will be important to watch as we dive in the fall months.
Like Alder, rising sophomore Riley Chamberlain was strong and consistent for the Cougars in last fall, but she struggled late in the season. The standout track runner wasn’t able to make her team's NCAA XC Championships roster last season, but that could absolutely change with a year of experience.
Chamberlain picked up personal bests of 4:33 (mile) and 9:16 (3k) on the oval, finding her groove amongst the nation’s best. BYU will rely on Chamberlain to team up with Alder in order to replicate the same stability that Lee and Sargent offered at last year's national meet.
And while we're not necessarily expecting them to be top-72 finishers like their former veteran teammates were, we do think that top-100 efforts on the national stage are plenty realistic for two women with plenty of upside.
Returning from the NCAA XC Championship lineup are also Anastaysia Davis (111th) and Alissa Fielding (163rd). Both of those women add key depth to Coach Taylor’s roster this fall and they each hold valuable national level experience.
Davis and Fielding might not have the same ceiling as their teammates mentioned above (and we may be very wrong), but this duo will at least play strong backend roles by keeping BYU's team score from getting out of hand this fall.
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Alright, here is the section of our article which made it excruciatingly difficult to rank this team.
The women waiting on the sidelines to make this varsity lineup last fall were Jenna Hutchins and Taylor Rohatinsky. With their sophomore seasons starting in the coming weeks, Hutchins and Rohatinsky bring two very different value propositions to this BYU roster.
Hutchins struggled in her first collegiate cross country season, ending her racing efforts before the month of October even began. It was admittedly a concerning and quick conclusion to a fall campaign that was supposed to be a major collegiate debut.
By the time that the indoor track season came around, the BYU athlete caught our eye with her 9:05 (3k) mark. And when Hutchins went on to run 15:35 (5k) during the outdoor track season, we felt like she was truly, "back."
Unfortunately, the rest of her season would suggest otherwise. An unexciting 4:20 (1500) mark at the Bryan Clay Invitational and an underwhelming race at the West Regional Championships left us scratching our heads and saying, "Huh, that was odd."
There is no denying that Hutchins is insanely talented. She is, after all, one of the greatest high school distance runners ever. She could be a top-30 All-American this fall and we wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.
But without any certainty as to what she'll do this fall, we can't feel 100% comfortable that BYU is going to replace McKenna Lee's firepower from 2022. We sincerely hope that Hutchins' breaks out and puts together a complete season -- we want to be wrong about this team ranking. However, for now, we think it's fair to be more on the cautious side of those expectations.
And then there is Taylor Rohatinsky who has been at her best in the middle distance events. The 4:12 (1500) runner didn’t compete in many cross country races last fall for BYU, but she could be on the fringe of making their varsity lineup this fall after a year of development.
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Aside from the returners, the Cougars will also welcome transfer Carlee Hansen, previously at North Carolina, as well as a solid core group of incoming freshmen.
Hansen, a Utah native, competed for the Tar Heels during the 2021 and 2022 cross country seasons. She will be returning home this year to compete for BYU and brings with her a respectable resume, highlighted by a 4:14 (1500) and national level experience.
BYU will benefit from Hansen joining the team as she will add extra depth to an already-talented roster. The incoming Cougar competed at the 2021 cross country national meet for North Carolina and was a solid 122nd as a true freshman.
However, despite consistently finishing amongst the top-half of the fields during the fall of 2022, Hansen missed out on the cross country national meet.
This former Tar Heel is a much stronger middle distance runner, but Diljeet Taylor has had success with her own metric milers competing on the grass. If the rising junior can quickly acclimate to a new training situation, then Hansen could be varsity runner for the Cougars.
Other athletes who could vie for a top-seven spot later this fall are three incoming freshmen: Grace Hutchison, Raygan Peterson and Kylie Olsen.
Hutchison has the greatest potential (among rookies) of making an immediate impact for the Cougars given her personal bests of 4:45 (1600) and 10:17 (3200) on the track. The incoming freshman has also shown potential on the cross country course with a 17:17 (5k) PR and a 29th place finish at the NXN Championships from last fall.
As for Peterson and Olsen, two sub-5:00 (1600) runners, they will seek guidance from their more experienced teammates. Peterson has a 5k PR of 17:55 and Olsen has run 18:33, respectable times that will add depth to BYU if not this year, then at least for years to come.
* * *
The 2023 cross country season is right around the corner and BYU has plenty of women looking to add to the legacy left by previous teams.
Consistency and depth will be relied upon for this team from top-to-bottom if they want to make the top-10 again at the NCAA XC Championships. Frentheway and Halladay-Lowry can only do so much at the front, so it’s going to take the remaining varsity lineup to close the gap on them.
In a way, this season will act as a passing of the torch. The new generation of star talents on this roster are going to be responsible for how far this team goes. And if they deliver on expectations, then yes, this ranking is too conservative.
BYU has found ways to get better and better over the years, even when we didn't think they could. And in 2023, that could absolutely the case yet again.
