By Robert James
The BYU men”s cross country team placed 16th at the NCAA National Meet Monday, Nov. 25.
Stanford won the team championship, placing four runners in the top-10.
The Cougars came into the race ranked 10th in the nation and were hoping to place in the top-six.
“Our goals and expectations were a lot higher,” head coach Ed Eyestone said. “But everybody just didn”t have their best races today.”
Sophomore Kip Kangogo, one of the favorites for the national crown, was still suffering from a hamstring injury and finished 33rd overall.
“Kip”s had the injury for a couple weeks now,” Eyestone said. “He still gutted it out and ran a strong race being this was his first time at Nationals.”
Kangogo injured his hamstring in a P.E. class nearly three weeks ago and the nagging injury has yet to heal.
“He”ll be back even better next year,” Eyestone said.
Although the team had expected to do better, Eyestone said they are still proud of their performance.
“Even with the guys not running their best races we still finished in the top-20,” Eyestone said. “We might have been tired from two consecutive 10k races, but the guys still gave it their best shot.”
Senior Lewis Jones, running in his last race as a Cougar, placed 67th and was the Cougar”s second finisher.
“Lewis has been our second guy all year,” Eyestone said. “He ran a strong race and gave us all he had.”
Senior Andy Carman was the Cougar”s third finisher, placing 135th in the last race of his career.
Other Cougar runners were junior Steve Barrus, 169th, and sophomores Chad Durham, 157th, Matt Adams, 213th, and Nathan Robison, 214th.
With five of the team”s top seven runners returning next year, the Cougars are excited and optimistic about next season.
“We”ll just start training again,” Eyestone said. “And we”ll find a way to get everybody to run their best races at Nationals.”
