I have no choice but to "Stan" BYU Women’s Distance

Format critic wrote:

Not helpful.

Also what is the average age of these women? Are they near-pensioners like the men?

Please stop using the internet if you are old and stupid and unable to accept help even when you ask for it

+1

Seriously

the clear answer wrote:

Format critic wrote:

Not helpful.

Also what is the average age of these women? Are they near-pensioners like the men?

Please stop using the internet if you are old and stupid and unable to accept help even when you ask for it

They almost all did a mission after their freshman year. Only one is older than a typical 5th year senior and had a medical redshirt, three are younger. Five are from Utah, one is from Idaho, and one is from Wyoming. No foreigners. Pretty much all local talent developed over years. An impressive team.

prewed wrote:

Has any BYU woman/female alum ever made a national team or gone pro? They just disappear from running after college.

There were a number of prominent steeplechasers before it became an Olympic event (Liz Jackson, Kassi Andersen), Heidi Magill ran for New Balance for a few years, Cecily Lemmon was with Asics or Saucony I think, Shea Collinsworth was with Oregon Track Club, etc. I don't think any of the distance athletes have made a US team for a while (possibly ever, but I don't know much pre-2000s). There are a few non US athletes who have gone pro and made an impact - Aneta Lemiesz is still on the European circuit pacing races. It's hard to make it as a pro obviously, but there are also some cultural issues too so if going pro doesn't "click" quickly or make a lot of financial sense to continue (which it almost always doesn't) then they move on pretty quickly.

There are plenty of sub-elite BYU women out there who are still running fantastic times. It would be great if someone put together an elite training group for women in Utah to see what they could do with the right resources. Look at Keira D'Amato's story, and think about all of the 30 year old former BYU stars who are done having kids and are ready to see what they can do.

Here is a comparison with the high school graduation years of BYU and NC State

BYU - 2016, 2018, 2017, 2017, 2018, 2016, 2020

NC State - 2017, 2019, 2020, 2016, 2018, 2018, 2017

So not much difference. NC has a 2016 graduate in their top 5, just as BYU does. BYU has 5 utah kids in their top 6, NC state has 1 NC kid in their top 7 (more are from NY). Based upon the stats, it does not appear that BYU has a competitive advantage in terms of age. Compare this to the NM team from a couple years ago.

Taylor did a great job in building this program back better. They had the same avg. hs class year as NC State. The thing is that if you're the best or second best coach among the big mountain schools, with the huge advantage of training and living at altitude, with hills and mountains all around, you should contend for a national xc title almost every year, and that is what Eyestone and Smith have been doing. Taylor, like Smith, really embraces the team/culture aspect. Wetmore/Heather at Colorado have done this for many years, maybe a little down now.

tuccone wrote:

golden hamster wrote:

I feel like there should be some age limit on these competitions. E.g. university competitions/NCAA is for 18-23 year olds and that's it. Where I am, I think you're a mature student if you start uni when you're 21 or above.

Go check the age for the girls that ran on BYUs team today. Go on do it.

Well maybe they're all OK then, I don't know. But what I meant is in general. Aside from anything else it'd get rid of all of the comments about how old they are and there would be no problem with it. I was replying to all of the comments above and the other comments about age everywhere which seem to roll around each year, not specifically the women's team. But I do think there should simply be a set age limit to get rid of all of the problems!

BYU killed it today considering some of their stronger runners were out of XC eligibility and couldn't run. Imagine if Courtney Wayment were on the course, running alongside Whittney Orton and Anna Camp. Coach Taylor has completely re-built the women distance program and considering their success in track and cross country this season, she has done an amazing job. Not many coaches can bring their teams to national relevance so soon after being hired. Hope they can keep it up! Definitely a team to look up to.

Her recruiting is picking up now. This year she signed two of the top 10 seniors according to Tullyrunners speed ratings. And they are from Minnesota and North Carolina.

And she will get Hutchins next year

"Lead with your head and heart, your body will follow."

I've saying the same thing for 50 years, including hundreds of times on LRC. I like this woman.

Is she only recruiting Mormon girls? Any non Mormons on the team?

You can do quite a lot with kids from the state of Utah alone (it may be 30th in population, but it is 1st in distance running right now). I didn't run the numbers on the women's side, but I am guessing that Utah would have won the national championship if it was scored by runner's home town instead of by college. The men's race would have definitely been won by Utah among the states by a large margin. Utah - 128 points. Second would have likely been Illinois or California. If you scored the nations independently, the USA, the UK and Kenya would have beaten them . USA - 29, USA (excluding Utah) - 43, UK (excluding Ireland) - 106, Kenya - 120 points. If you scored USA vs the world, the world would have eked it out: USA - 29 vs the world - 26. Foreigner accounted for 5 of the top 10, 10 of the top 20, 16 of the top 30, 21 of the top 40, 23 of the top 50 and 25 of the top 60 places.

Utah better than Illinois/California/Colorado?

x34x wrote:

Is she only recruiting Mormon girls? Any non Mormons on the team?

I have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some non-LDS girls on the team now or who are being recruited. Taylor herself is not Mormon, and BYU has had some great athletes (e.g. Roni Jones-Perry for the women's volleyball team was probably the second-best player in the country in 2018) who weren't LDS.

Coach Taylor gave an interview to the local radio affiliate after winning the national championship:

https://www.spreaker.com/user/broadwaymedia/3-16-21-diljeet-taylor-byu-t-f-and-cross