BYU men running in hopes of securing first NCAA title

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Four words and yes, one of them an F-word, have appeared on the white board in the cross country team meeting space at Brigham Young University for the past year. 

Win This Flippin Thing.

Coach Ed Eyestone explained Friday that those words summed up the feeling of his men's cross country team after finishing seventh at the 2016 NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships. He joked that at the Provo school, that's as profane as it gets.

With a core group coming back and prized recruit Casey Clinger making the decision to delay his LDS mission, the Cougars have been single-minded all season long. They aim to try and unseat Northern Arizona and win the school's first national title in men's cross country.

"For the past year we've done everything we could to make that happen," Eyestone said. 

Rory Linkletter said the effort to make 2017 special goes back farther than that. 

"The guys (on the team) that are all from Utah right now, I raced those guys in high school. They were my rivals," Linkletter said. "I've gone from trying to beat them to now we're all best friends and working for a common goal. When we signed, we decided we were going to bring a championship home to BYU and here we are four years later with that being a realistic expectation put on ourselves."

At least 10 members of the non-traveling squad have paid their own way to be at Saturday's race. 

The men's team race stacks up with BYU and NAU presumed to have the deepest teams. But Portland, Stanford, Syracuse and Colorado are also talented enough to win the championship. 

Every one of the contending teams has a talented trio up front. If those trios end up canceling one another out, then it will be the fourth and fifth finishers that could go a long way in deciding who wins. 

NAU, despite the graduation of 2016 fourth-place finisher Futsum Zienasellassie, is seemingly just as good in 2017.

Coach Michael Smith said the workout metrics and data collected from training runs at Flagstaff's 7,000-feet elevation tell him that this team of Lumberjacks is just as strong, if not stronger. 

Knight vs. Fisher

Stanford's Grant Fisher was quick to point out Friday that there is much more to the storyline of Syracuse's Justyn Knight and him in weighing the outcome of the men's individual champion. 

"There's a lot more people in the race than me and Justyn. I think it would be a mistake to just focus on the Grant and Justyn deal. He's a great guy, I respect him a lot, but there's a lot of guys in the race," Fisher said. 

Fisher, the NCAA 5,000-meter champion on the track, and Knight, last year's cross country runner-up, have been on a collision course all fall. When they met head to head Oct. 13 at the Nuttycome Wisconsin Invitational, Knight beat Fisher by less than a second. 

Knight gained World Championships experience on the track over the summer, and placed a surprising ninth in the global 5,000-meter final. 

The E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park course has been good to Syracuse. Two years ago the Orangmen broke through with a historic team victory. 

Leading candidates to challenge Knight and Fisher are the trio of Kenyan runners from Alabama, including Vincent Kiprop, Gilbert Kigen and Alfred Chelanga. Those three frontrunners have put the Crimson Tide program on the map and although the team's fourth and fifth runners are well back, Alabama earned an at-large berth out of the South Region.

When asked which of the three seemed to be the fittest, Kiprop demured and said that the question would be answered Saturday. 

Epic women's team battle

Colorado has much of the same personnel in place, led by Dani Jones, that finished nine points behind champion Oregon in third place in 2016. 

Jones, the Pac-12 medalist, leads a team that includes Makena Morley, Tabor Scholl, Kaitlyn Benner and Sage Hurta. 

"Having a team out there is really encouraging and knowing that I'm running for something bigger than myself is a really special part of what (Saturday) will be," Jones said.

It's a motivated bunch, but the Buffaloes will have to fend off serious contenders in New Mexico and San Francisco. 

The Dons of the WCC, much like BYU, have never won the national title. But with NCAA 10,000-meter champion Charlotte Taylor leading the charge, San Francisco won the West Region and is a threat to win the national title. 

New Mexico might have the best quartet -- with Ednah Kurgat, Charlotte Prouse, Alice Wright and Weini Kelati. The  Lobos need someone to step up with a big effort at No. 5 to win the title. 

Stanford and Oregon have talented squads and momentum that could be trending upwards. Last year, the Ducks pulled off a surprising one-point victory despite not winning its conference or regional titles.

Individually, there is a fascinating race that features 1,500-meter runners with superior leg speed and 10,000-meter grinders who can push throughout the 6K distance. 

Defending champion Karissa Schweizer of Missouri has a proven track record of putting together winning performances when it matters most. But Kurgat, making her first NCAA appearance for New Mexico, might be the favorite. 

"It's definitley different coming into this meet not being able to fly under the radar," Schweizer said. "Knowing this is going to be a big and high-pressured meet, and going into it with a lot of confidence and knowing that my training is where I want it to be, (I'm) just excited to see how it goes."

Kurgat was 12th in 2015 when she ran as a freshman for Liberty. That same day, New Mexico won its first team title, with Wright taking fifth to lead the Lobos.

New Hampshire's Elinor Purrier handed Schweizer a rare loss this season Oct. 14 at Pre-Nationals and withstood frigid conditions last weekend in Buffalo at the Northeast regional. 

Oregon's Katie Rainsberger, fourth as a freshman last year, said she feels "more mature" and has a better understanding of what's going on this time around.

"Everything you do, you do it for your teammates, and you really draw from that," Rainsberger said. "It's not about you. It's about the five, six other girls that are working really hard."