By Josh Gildea
Recent performances by the BYU men’s and women’s cross country teams are not only being noticed on the national scene, but also among those watching closer to home.
BYU freshman Josh Rohatinsky has been selected as the Mountain West Conference men’s cross country athlete of the week.
BYU Sophomore Lindsey Thomsen also garnered the honor as the MWC women’s cross country athlete of the week.
This honor marks the first time this season a BYU harrier from the men’s team has won the award.
Rohatinsky, a four time Utah cross country state champion, finished the regular season last weekend as the first MWC runner to cross the finish line at the NCAA pre-national invitational in Ames, Iowa.
The Utah native out of Provo High School helped his team to a fourth-place finish at the national meet by placing 27th overall with a time of 31:33.4.
Rohatinsky’s strong performance also helped the BYU men’s cross country team jump up a notch to a No. 7 ranking in the national polls.
Consistent running has been pushing the Cougars up in the rankings since the beginning of the season when they held the No. 33 spot in the nation.
Lindsey Thomsen, who won the cross country athlete of the week honor for the women’s team, also helped propel her team up in the rankings this week.
After taking first place at the pre-national meet October 14th in Ames, Iowa, the BYU women’s cross country team moved up three spots to No. 1 in the nation.
This is the first top seed ranking this season for the reigning NCAA women’s cross country champions.
Thomsen, also a Provo native, has finished in the top two for BYU in each of the four meets she has competed in this year.
Before coming to BYU she was the Utah 5A State Champion and set records in both the 1600m and 3200m races.
Last month her second place overall finish at the Great American Cross Country Festival in North Carolina helped the BYU women’s cross country team to another first place finish.
Both men and women cross country teams will take two weeks off from competition to prepare for the first meet of the post season — the Mountain West Conference Championships in Fort Collins, Colo., on Oct. 28.
