BYU Women Win Pre-MWC Championship

Rena Williams captures individual title.

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Oct. 6, 2003

SAN DIEGO - In true BYU style, the women's cross country team won the Pre-Mountain West Conference Championship meet Saturday with a score of 19 points, 36 points ahead of second place Utah. Individually the women tooke first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and tenth place in the 6K race.

Overall, junior Rena Williams from Beaver, Utah won the race coming in 22:27. Following close behind her was junior Katie Martin placing third with a time of 22:29 in her first race of the season.

"About a mile and a half into the race there is a huge hill that the women had to run up," women's head coach Patrick Shane said. "At that point we were running in third through tenth place. But at the top of the hill BYU emerged with a tight pack of five runners in the front.

"The girls stayed together until about a mile left in the race. At that point it became a tough race between Rena, Katie and a Utah runner," Shane said. "It just turned out that Rena had the best kick of them all and was able to win the race."

Shane said that this race was a wonderful oppurtunity for Williams to win a race this year and gain more experience racing up front.

"It was a good race," Williams said. "It was hard to take the lead but my team pushed me and helped me to keep going. When the Utah girl passed me I knew I had to be confident and so I ran after her. Once I passed her I just kept that pace and ended up winning."

Also placing for the Cougars was junior Jami Caldwell in fourth place (22:47), junior Emily Raymond in fifth place (22:55), freshman Kristy Barrus in sixth place (23.00) and redshirt freshman Anne Heiner in tenth place (23:21).

"This race was a great oppurtunity to give this group of women a chance to get the job done," Shane siad. "It shows me who is ready to race right now and will help me to pick the 12 who will be going to Pre Nationals in two weeks."

The women will use this next week to train hard and rest from competition. They will head to Cedar Falls, Iowa for Pre Nationals Oct. 18 for a chance to race on the same course NCAA Championships will be held on.