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BYU Women Claim Cross Country Crown
from the Provo Daily Herald
Nov. 23, 1999
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- For the second time in three years, the BYU women's cross country team is the NCAA's best. Placing five runners in the top 30, the Cougars totaled just 72 team points to win the 1999 title by a comfortable 53-point margin. The program becomes the first in BYU history to pick up two national titles, and gives the school its sixth NCAA championship overall. "This is easily the best team I have ever coached, no question," said BYU coach Patrick Shane. "The team unity, spirit and feeling was very positive and it carried them through today. "It's like nothing I've seen in over twenty years of coaching." Shane instructed his team to run together in packs through the bulk of the race. The strategy worked: the Cougars' top five runners finished within 20 seconds of each other, with senior Elizabeth Jackson leading the pack in 16:59 to take 11th place overall. She was followed by Kara Ormond in 16th (17:11), Tara Rohatinsky in 17th (17:13), Sharolyn Shields in 23rd (17:16) and Laura Heiner in 26th (17:17). All five were awarded All-American honors following the race. The result was a commanding victory over the likes of cross country powers Arkansas (125) and Stanford (127). The 53-point spread was a far cry from last year's final, in which only five points separated the top three teams. "It was one of the most exciting races I've ever seen," Shane said. "We were up front in a pack all the way. "Our strategy was a lot like regionals. We moved out front early and were able to run together as a pack for much of the race." Shane hammered home his "pack" philosophy in an emotional get-together Sunday night. "We said last night in a team meeting that we wanted to run for each other, and that's what we did," said Jackson, the first runner in BYU history to be named a four-time All-American. "We ran together as a team." Unfortunately for the BYU men, the team togetherness failed to cross gender lines. The Cougars were beset by a run of bad luck, struggling to a 30th-place finish with 717 points after entering the meet ranked No. 15 in the country. The parade of misfortunes included food poisoning, allergies, asthma attacks and a bad case of the cramps. "We really struggled today," said coach Sherald James. "It was hard to see three or four individuals who have trained so hard have outside factors like allergies and sickness affect their performance. "I'm convinced that if we were healthy we had the capacity of finishing in the top five." Arkansas took home the men's title with 58 team points, followed by Wisconsin (185) and North Carolina State (201). Randon Richards was the first Cougar to cross the finish line, placing 72nd in 31:48. John Hedengren (157th, 32:49), David Danley (196th, 33:24), Dula Parkinson (222nd, 33:55) and Nate Harrison (228th, 34:07) rounded out the scoring for BYU. Senior Matt Poulsen, who stayed up all night wheezing with asthma problems, was forced to withdraw midway through the race, while fellow senior Marc Lawson limped to a 240th-place finish with severe muscle cramps. "We really ran under par today," Richards said. "We started off exactly how we wanted and through the first mile we were right where we hoped to be. "I know it wasn't because of a lack of effort, but it's disappointing to struggle like we did in the biggest race of the year."
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