Etrain Team Power Rankings: #13 BYU Cougars

By: Garrett Zatlin

Reminder of the list so far...

#25 Eastern Michigan Eagles

#24 Penn State Nittany Lions

#23 Minnesota Gophers

#22 Cornell Bears
#21 Furman Paladins
#20 Florida State Seminoles

#19 Colorado State Rams

#18 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes

#17 NC State Wolfpack

#16 Penn Quakers

#15 Virginia Tech Hokies

#14 UCLA Bruins

#13 BYU Cougars

#12 Louisville Cardinals

#11 Michigan Wolverines

#10 Virginia Cavaliers

#09 Oregon Ducks

#08 Oklahoma State Cowboys

#07 Iona Gaels

#06 Mississippi Rebels

#05 Villanova Wildcats

#04 Wisconsin Badgers

#03 Syracuse Orange 

#02 Stanford Cardinals
#01 Colorado Buffalos

13. BYU Cougars

Flotrack’s #13: Michigan Wolverines

Coach: Ed Eyestone

Notable Departures: Steve Flint, Connor Peloquin, Spencer Gardner, Jason Witt (didn’t race last fall)
Notable Additions*: Marcus Dickson, Erik Harris, Jacob Heslington, Brayden McClelland, Brad Nye

Projected Scoring Five: Jonathan Nelson (SR), Aaron Fletcher (SR), Dallin Farnsworth (SO), Connor McMillan (SO), Erik Harris (SO)

*Most/all of the notable additions are returning from mission trips. Connor Mantz and Zac Jaklin will join the squad in 2016 after they have completed their mission trip.

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Somehow, someway, BYU is constantly one of the top teams in the NCAA. Every year they lose talented seniors, but develop hard working young guys into some of the best in the NCAA. It’s tough to go against history and history says that  BYU should be ranked a top 10 team. However, after one of their less impressive NCAA performances last year and the uncertainty about what they’re team holds puts them at #13.

Despite losing some key seniors, BYU entered last season with high expectations as usual. The Cougars started their season at the Utah open, a small meet that included Boise State, Webster State, and Westminster. Boise State made them work for it, but BYU came out with the win 11 points over the Broncos. The Cougars then hosted a meet of their own and met up with UCLA. BYU was able to get a relatively easy win although, UCLA was missing top-man, Lane Werley. While the warm up races were nice, the real action would come at the Notre Dame Invite. The field was loaded. Michigan entered as a the deepest team on paper and a strong ace in Ferlic. Florida State had a strong group upfront and New Mexico was scene a sleeper threat. Even with the top competition, the Cougars did not disappoint. Nelson led the team with a very strong 10^th place finish while his senior teammate Spencer Gardner, placed 14^th. The strong performance from the duo upfront pulled the team forward McMillan and Briggs ended up placing 27^th and 28^th while Peloquin rounded out the scoring in 33^rd. While most teams struggle to keep their 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th men together, BYU did just that. They kept the team score low and walked away with an excellent 112 point performance. They claimed the runner-up title only to Michigan who was 15 points out. Yet again, Brigham Young had established themselves as another XC threat. Now everyone had their eye on BYU to see just how good these guys could be and they looked for that answer at the Wisconsin Adidas Invite. Once again, BYU faced a stacked field that included top ranked Syracuse and NAU, the always dominant Wisconsin Badgers, power-house Stanford, a super deep Iona squad, and a very underrated Portland squad. Throw in other teams and BYU couldn’t feel comfortable about trying to back up their ND performance. Sure enough, the prestigious field absolutely punished the Cougars. Nelson was once again the top BYU finisher, but fell all the way back to 37^th. Steve Flint was much further out at 79^th with the rest of the squad at 89^th, 90^th, and 92^nd. No one on the team had the day they were supposed to have and it showed in the score as the Cougars recorded 378 points and a 13^th place finish losing to teams that had breezed by at Notre Dame like New Mexico and Florida State. While the performance had to hurt, BYU needed to remain confident. One bad race was not an indicator of their true fitness. They knew that and the rest of the nation knew that. Fast forward two weeks to the West Coast Conference championship, and BYU entered with a renewed focus and hunger. Portland was the only team that stood between the Cougars and the conference title they desperately wanted to defend. Portland was quick and made the race fast, hoping to split up that BYU pack. To an extent, it worked, and Portland took the top two spots as well as fourth place. BYU however, was still able to maintain a strong pack taking spots three and five through seven. When the dust settled, the score were tallied up. Portland had stolen the title away from BYU by a mere three points. The loss of the title hurt especially for a Cougar team looking to regain the confidence they once had at Notre Dame. They would need to regroup themselves and prep for a loaded Mountain region that was not going to just give them a spot to nationals. As expected, Colorado was the easy favorite, but second place was up for grabs and anyone’s who wanted it bad enough. BYU wanted to do more than just cruise through their region and qualify. They wanted to impress the nation and send a message. Once again, BYU tried to keep their pack tight and move up as a squad. Unfortunately, NAU had too much power up front and easily took away second place from BYU. Colorado won the title with 45 points while NAU was 23 points behind. Brigham Young would settle for third with 121 points. They were into nationals and once again defeated New Mexico, but they didn’t quite send the message they wanted to. NCAA’s would be the last chance to make a statement. The Cougars walked the blue carpet into Terre Haute ready to show that they were worthy of a top team finish. Could BYU replicate their Notre Dame race, keep a close pack and put guys in an All-American position? The answer to all of those questions was no. Flint did what he could, but 67^th place wasn’t the score BYU wanted for their low stick. Nelson struggled to bring the pack with him and he was restrained to 98^th place while his teammate Fletcher was 102^nd. The rest of the pack couldn’t stay together like they usually had and finished 127^th and 129^th respectively (Peloquin and McMillan). BYU finished 16^th place overall with 437 points. Considering what they had done, it was a frustrating performance. Brigham Young left Indiana feeling with one thing on their mind: redemption.

Now BYU enters this season in a very similar spot to last season. They lose some key senior front-runners in Peloquin, Flint, and Gardner, but return Nelson who has shown signs of being a true leader. Aaron Fletcher will also join Nelson as a senior leader. Behind them they have some very nice support in Briggs and McMillan who have some nice experience and some excellent times as well. Add in Dallin Farnsworth who has returned from his mission trip and this group is very dangerous. Here are some 5k times…Farnsworth (13:53), McMillan (13:59), Nelson (14:09). McMillan is only a sophomore and the fact that he’s already run 13:59 gets me very excited for his future. Like Miles Smith of UCLA, I expect McMillan to have a breakout season and contend for a top spot on this squad. However, what really makes this squad so dangerous, is the unknown. It’s tough to keep track of who’s going to mission trips and who’s returning. One of the impact runners come into the program is Erik Harris. Harris placed 33^rd at the Mountain region in 2012 before leaving for his mission trip. The guy has some decent times and actual experience in the NCAA. He is talented like no other. Other guys like Dickson and Nye hold 4:03 and 4:04 mile PR’s (respectively) so the potential there is very exciting. Hesslington and McClelland are also two guys that placed top 30 at NXN (2012). Hesslington was 28^th and McClelland was 8^th that year. There is simply too much talent to ignore. The Cougars are incredibly deep have so much potential that they could cover literally any injury. That’s the exciting part. However, in order for them to be lower, I want to see their top guys place near the top more consistently. A successful team usually needs a strong number one to consistently place high. Unfortunately, they didn’t have that at Wisconsin or NCAA’s. I’d also like to see their pack stay tighter at the bigger meets. The faster meets seems to shake them up and string them out. If they can stay composed at the big meets and stay more consistent, I’ll eagerly move BYU up.

Much like UCLA, I can’t have too many arguments with Flotrack on their placement of BYU at #14. We’re on the same page here. BYU has a strong history and returns a lot of solid pieces. They are a top 10 talent, but until I see them execute and their new guys have an impact, I’m good with keeping BYU at #13.