Lexy Lowry, a senior from Meridian, Idaho, placed third in the 3,000-meter run to boost BYU to a ninth-place finish on the women’s side at the NCAA indoor track and field championships in Virginia Beach, Va., on Saturday.
Lowry, who claimed second place in the 5,000-meter run the previous day, crossed the finish line Saturday with a time of 9:03.20, finishing behind West Virginia’s Ceili McCabe (9:01.18) and Alabama’s Doris Lemngole (9:01.64).
Lowry’s teammate, Riley Chamberlain, faded to ninth place.
Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”
Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.
Lowry and Chamberlain produced the two fastest times in the nation this season. Chamberlain might have been feeling the effects of her heroic effort on the anchor leg of BYU’s victorious distance medley relay team on Friday.
In that race, she overcame a 30-meter deficit to run down Oregon and claim the win.
The BYU women’s team totaled 24 points to claim a top 10 finish for the fourth time in five years. Before that streak, the Cougars hadn’t finished in the top 10 since 2009.
“It has been so incredible to see Lexy and Riley feed off of each other’s success, find confidence in one another and celebrate one another’s success,” said BYU coach Diljeet Taylor.
Oregon won the women’s team championships Saturday with 55 points.
Meanwhile, the BYU men’s team finished 14th with 17 points, well behind USC, which won the team championship with 39 points.
BYU’s Ben Barton, a 6-foot-4 junior from Michigan, placed fourth in the seven-event heptathlon with a score of 5,898 points. The winner was Mississippi State’s Peyton Bair, a junior from Idaho who scored 6,013 points.
Barton was second in the 60-meter dash (6.87), fifth in the long jump (23-8), second in the 60-meter hurdles (7.90), eighth in the shot put (43-9 1/4), second in the high jump (6-9), 13th in the pole vault (15-0) and 10th in the 1,000-meter run (2:49.57).
BYU’s 4 x 400 relay team of Eli Hazlett, Trey Jackson, Ty Oustrich and Josh Taylor placed sixth with a time of 3:05.56. The race was won by Georgia (3:03.44).
Lowry’s victory caps an outstanding indoor season, one in which she won the Big 12 Conference championships by 23 seconds at 5,000 meters and produced times in the 3,000 and 5,000 that place her among the top five fastest collegians ever at those distances.
Chamberlain, a 5-foot-10 junior, also had an outstanding season, winning the mile at the Big 12 championships and producing times in the mile and 3,000 that rank her among the top 10 fastest collegians ever.
