The BYU men’s and women’s cross country teams will both advance to the NCAA Championships following their impressive performances in the Mountain Regionals in Albuquerque on Saturday.

The No. 14 men’s team took first place in the 10K run. The Cougars not only knocked off MWC champion New Mexico, but they also beat No. 4 Northern Arizona and No. 5 Colorado.

 
“It was a spectacular outing for us today,” said men’s coach Ed Eyestone. “We beat some very good, quality programs and didn’t run ourselves into the ground. I think we were motivated to come back into competition and show that we can run on a national level.”

Leading BYU was Miles Batty, who finished second with a time of 30:03.5. David McNeill of Northern Arizona took first with a time of 29:51.

The BYU men’s tennis team capped off its fall season with a dominant showing against the University of Hawaii.

The three-day tournament was played round-robin style, with singles matches taking place the first two days and doubles matches being played throughout the tournament.

College students tend to believe they are more capable of performing well on two hours’ sleep than the average human being. Andrew George unintentionally tried to prove that in a big way on Saturday. 

After seeing the birth of his first child in Provo late on Friday night, the senior tight end from Englewood, Colo., rejoined his teammates in New Mexico just in time to provide a much-needed boost to an otherwise sleepy BYU offense. 

 It was two-and-done for the BYU women’s soccer team, which followed up its 2-0 first-round victory over UC Santa Barbara with a 2-0 loss to No. 1 Stanford in the second round on Saturday. 

“It was an honor to be here and play Stanford,” BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said in a statement. “I’m very proud of how hard our team played and the level at which we competed.”

The BYU men’s basketball team played their first game of the regular season, and it wasn’t an easy win.

Visiting Bradley provided a bit of a challenge, but the Cougars were able to hang on to win 70-60.

“It was a pretty tough opener,” said head coach Dave Rose. “Bradley played five games in Brazil and they were very prepared.”

The game began with the unveiling of the 2009 MWC Championship banner while Olympic fanfare music blasted.

BYU got off to a shaky start, partly because of first-game jitters from playing in front of more than 16,000 fans, and partly because of the stifling defense of Bradley. 

“Our effort was good, but our execution had issues,” Rose said. “Jimmer Fredette and Jonathan Tavernari took some ill-advised shots in the first half.”

But the Cougars were able to get back on track thanks to some great bench play.

The BYU women’s soccer team defeated UC Santa Barbara 2-0 in Thursday’s first round of the NCAA Women’s College Cup.

The game was the first-ever matchup between UC Santa Barbara and No. 8 BYU, and it marked BYU’s 11th NCAA appearance. After losing in the MWC tournament finals to San Diego State, BYU was eager to return to the soccer field against the Gauchos.

“It was a real team effort out there, and I'm very proud of the girls,” BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “Everybody stepped up and played their hardest.”

Freshman Carlee Payne scored the first goal of the night after the ball was deflected into the goal off one of the Gauchos’ defenders.