Blanks, Lemngole win NCAA cross country titles, BYU sweeps team championships

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Harvard senior Graham Blanks successfully defended his NCAA Division I cross country championship on Saturday and BYU became the first school in more than two decades to capture both the men’s and women’s team titles.

Doris Lemngole of Alabama captured the women’s race after finishing second a year ago.

Colorado won both team titles in 2002.

Blanks finished the 10,000-meter Thomas Zimmer championship course in 28-minutes, 37.2-seconds, less than two seconds in front of New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel. Blanks is the 13th men’s runner to defend his title in the 86-year history of the race.

BYU, which won its other men’s title in 2019, had 124 points, led by the sixth-place finish of Casey Clinger. Creed Thompson finished 12th for the Cougars, who had all their scoring runners finish inside the top 50.

Iowa State was second with 137 points, followed by Arkansas, Wisconsin and Northern Arizona. Defending champion Oklahoma State was eighth.

The BYU women had 147 points, 17 in front of West Virginia, for their sixth championship. Providence, Northern Arizona and Oregon rounded out the top five. BYU won the 2020 title before North Carolina State won the next three. The defending champion Wolfpack were eighth.

Lexy Halladay-Lowry was the top finisher for the Cougars, 14th overall and 11th among scoring runners. BYU’s women also had all of scoring runners finish inside the top 50.

Lemngole completed the 6,000-meter race in 19:21 with Pamela Kosgei of New Mexico second in 19:27.8.

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