After running to a fourth-place podium finish, the Cougars raise the BYU flag at the NCAA Championships
At the 2011 National Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., Miles B. Batty (’12) led the men’s team to a fourth-place finish—BYU’s second-best showing in history. In 1993 the team placed second.
“Finishing in the top four on the podium today,” Coach Edward D. Eyestone (BS ’85) said at the event, “is equivalent to the basketball team finishing in the Final Four. It’s a really big deal, and I’m really proud of the guys.”
The Cougars ranked as high as third nationally over the course of the season. As the new guys in the West Coast Conference, the BYU men stole the WCC Championship title—breaking the Portland Pilots’ 32-year winning streak. “A lot of people were happy to see some change on the podium,” says Batty. “We were the good guys.”
BYU also cleaned up at the NCAA Mountain Region Championships, hosted by BYU, where the men won the regional team title and Batty placed first in the 10k.
At nationals five of BYU’s men finished among the top 100 in the field. Batty had the best finish for BYU, placing 14th in the 10k. He was joined in the top 25 by teammate Rex G. Shields (’13), who placed 22nd. Both runners automatically earned All-America honors—Batty’s fifth.
With their fourth-place finish, the Cougars brought home yet another trophy that, at present, is gracing the bachelor pad Batty and three other teammates share. As Batty explains, Coach Eyestone made him carry it around the airport: “I told him if I was going to carry it, I was going to take it home for a bit.” It joins a stash of hardware that is growing above the runners’ fireplace, from individual medals to NCAA trophies.
Says Batty, a two-time national champ: “We’re kind of running out of room on the mantel.”
