Why is BYU so dominant?

I’m assuming you’re being facetious. while organized practice is prohibited all 7 days, 90% of programs are training 7 days per week. My point is that a mandated rest day is potentially a reason for the BYU success at the big meets at the end of the season. Note that the LDS athletes still get in high volume on 6 days.

byu gives everyone 2 extra years to get in shape going on missionary trips where they get special permission to go with a training partner

Not the women, and they won too.

The women don’t get the benefit of age with the mission but this year they did benefit from a few women “coming home”.

Multiple transfer that started away from BYU but are Mormon. When they are good enough they move back in. What a system.

Who besides Hansen?

They aren't exactly untalented. BYU's men's team had 2 NXN champs plus a Paris Olympian.

The women are also getting a ton of talented recruits. One future cougar(Jane Hedengren) just broke a current cougar's(Jenna Hutchins)HS XC 5K record.

I'm assuming you are being facetious. Where is your link that 90% of the programs are training 7 days a week? Mine doesn't.

We have a mandatory day off every week... no organized practice. I can't require a workout and don't. Some, not all, on the team do train but it's on their own. Most other teams are just like this unless they have an uninterested compliance department (which is rare).

I guarantee you that BYU is the same... some on the team do train that 7th day... not all of them are 100% mormon.

Having the option for a day off per week is not the reason byu is good.

Shut up Richard.

Off topic, but do all BYU runners have to take a mission? Do they also recruit runners who aren't mormon or attend LDS church? I was surprised to see how many of their current runners are married. I know they are older, but I can't imagine being married/having kids while still in college. I assume they marry early so they can finally go to pound town?

No. Men get ostracized by the Mormon community if they don't go on a mission, but its not mandatory and from what I understand the ostracizing kind of ebbs and flows over time - someone will be your friend. BYU doesn't actively recruit anyone who is not Mormon anymore unless they are VERY fast AND reach out to the coach about a desire to go there - we are talking fast enough for offers from NAU, Stanford, and many other good programs though. BYU women, and mormon women in general, marry early. Part of it is sex, but a lot of it is culture - you're kind of seen as an old hag if you don't at least have a marriage lined up before college graduation.

Ed Eyestone has a lot of buy in given the team's recent success. Maybe some guy goes off on his own on trails outside of Provo. Maybe someone sleeps weird hours one day and gets a run at 11 pm. For most 11 or 12 runs a week is probably enough.

What exactly do you mean by the bolded "anymore", you mean this year? Because someone I was recruiting signed there a couple years ago and that person is not Mormon. That person did not reach out to BYU, they were reached out to. Yes they were very good, not stanford good but certainly nau good. So your 'not anymore' must be very recent.

remember when villanova won multiple xc titles in a row and seemed eternally dominant? at a school at dead sea level? in not a great training location? Then that stopped.

it's culture and momentum. And a decent, charismatic coach. Easy to recruit HSers when they look at their heroes doing well in a program. Who wouldn't want to put on the same uniform and run with the national champions?

then a year or two goes not so well at championships because of injury or bad luck and the momentum is lost. Recruits stop coming.

oldest story in athletics. The NCAA is littered with dynasties that died.

Truthfully, on the women's side anyway, if the West Virginia 5th run 9 seconds faster then West Virginia wins so that's not really dominant, is it?

I mean, props to byu but it was kinda close

It would be just as easy to say if the BYU 5th runner ran 9 seconds faster, they would have won by about 40 points. Coulda, shoulda, woulda. Didn't.

17 points is close but there have been many years where it was closer.

2023: Nc State by 1
2019: Arkansas by 6
2017: New Mexico by 15
2016: Oregon by 1
2011: Georgetown by 8
2003: Stanford by 8
From '96-'98, three championships were determined by a TOTAL of 11 points.

I expect BYU will win again next year and by a larger margin.

It would be easy to say a lot of things.

I didn't say byu didn't deserve to win.

I just stated maybe it wasn't dominant.

And it was accurate statement.

Hansen was BYU's top recruiting target in her high school class. Taylor was very disappointed when she signed with North Carolina. There is no one else.

Add Zariel Macchia to BYU

I don't think anyone said the BYU women's team was "dominant" this year. The OP used dominant in the thread title to refer to BYU winning both titles.

If you are referring to the post above that called Villanova dominant, well, they were. 7 team titles and 7 individual titles in 10 years, and usually the spread was at least 40-50 points. I would have to go back and look at rosters but I believe all 7 of those teams had at least 2 future Olympians on them (Huber, Rhines, Douma, O'Sullivan, Tollefson).