Football
The Greater Augusta Sports Council named punter Matt A. Payne, ’05, one of 10 semifinalists for the fifth-annual Ray Guy Award. Payne was selected from a list of 41 initial candidates based upon his overall statistics and contribution to his team. The award is presented annually to the nation’s top collegiate punter. In November the Mountain West Conference selected Payne as the special teams player of the week for the fifth time during the season—a MWC record eighth of his career.
Former head football coach R. LaVell Edwards, ’78, was one of 14 former college coaches and players inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on December 7.
Men’s Cross Country
The men’s cross country team held off the Air Force Academy 39-57 to win their fifth MWC championship in six years. Joshua M. Rohatinsky, ’06, Bryan K. Lindsay, ’05, and Dustin C. Bybee,’08, earned First Team All-MWC honors, and Nathan M. Robison, ’05, earned Second Team All-MWC honors. Men’s coach Edward D. Eyestone, ’85, was named the Men’s Coach of the Year.
Led by Rohatinsky, the men finished fifth in the nation at the 2004
NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Nov. 22.
Men’s Golf
The men’s golf team notched its second consecutive victory at the Barona Collegiate Cup, winning the tournament by nearly 20 strokes after carding 11 out of a possible 12 scores under par. Just a few weeks earlier, the team won the Fresno Lexus Classic by 20 strokes, marking the first time the Cougars had won a tournament since March.
Women’s Tennis
The women’s tennis team competed hard against some of the country’s stiffest competition to take second place in the ITA/Wilson Region V Championships. The doubles team of Lauren Jones,’07, and Dolly Chang, ’08, advanced to the finals but forfeited the match as a result of school policy not to play on Sunday.
Women’s Soccer
The women’s soccer team tied for second place in the MWC regular-season standings with San Diego State. The Cougars were upset 2-1, however, in the first round of the MWC tournament by the seventh-seeded Air Force Falcons, ending BYU’s season with a 7-10-4 overall record.
Women’s Basketball
Mary M. Abell, ’08, was named to the MWC Preseason All-Conference Team as the top newcomer at the Women’s Basketball Media Day in October. Abell, one of eight new faces on the 2004–05 Cougar roster, is a forward from Monroe, La.
Women’s Cross Country
The women’s cross country team won its 17th straight MWC championship by holding off and defeating Colorado State 24-59. Laura Turner, ’05, finished first overall and was honored as MWC Women’s Athlete of the Year.
At the NCAA championships, Turner finished the women’s 6K event in fourth place and became only the second BYU women’s cross country runner to earn four All-American citations. The women’s team placed eighth overall, continuing a streak of 16 straight top ten finishes.
