Minnesota Secures Team Sweep At Cyclone Preview; Freshman Katy Zang Breaks Course Record In Collegiate Debut

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Kylie Graham File Photo

BYU’s Jane Hedengren and Tayvon Kitchen were both victorious at the Utah Valley Invitational Friday morning at Scera Park in Orem, Utah, guiding the Cougars to a team sweep to begin the 2026 collegiate cross country season.

Hedengren, last year’s NCAA Cross Country Championships runner-up, won the women’s  three-mile race convincingly by 33 seconds in 15 minutes, 8.62 seconds, leading No. 4 BYU to a score 19 points against Utah Valley’s 54 points.

Jenna Hutchins finished second for BYU and third overall in 15:44.65. NCAA steeplechase champion Taylor Lovell finished fourth in 16:04.57 as BYU’s third runner.

Lexi Goff (16:04.57, fourth) and Nelah Roberts (16:13.16, fifth) completed the scoring for BYU.

Caren Kipsirat led Utah Valley with a 15:41.42 effort to finish second to Hedengren. No. 20 Utah, led by Mackenzie Rogers finishing 13th in 16:44.82, took third with 76 points.

Kitchen, 32nd at the NCAA Championships in his freshman season, won the men’s three-mile race in 13:21.35, guiding No. 9 BYU to 17 points.

Dalton Mortensen (13:51.58), Noah Jenkins (13:58.67) and Hunter Kitchen (14:01.44) finished 2-3-4 to give BYU the top four overall finishers. Jefferson McMullin (14:17.81) was BYU’s fifth, finishing seventh.

Utah Valley’s Sila Kiplagat rounded out the top five individuals in 14:02.45. The Wolverines finished second as a team with 46 points.

Southern Utah, led by Logan Peel (14:26.20) finishing 12th, scored 74 points.

Gophers Sweep Cyclone Preview

The Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s and women’s teams won their respective races Friday morning at the Cyclone Preview held at the Iowa State Cross Country Course in Ames.

The Gopher men prevailed over No. 30 Missouri, 37-40, led by Emmett Gerres (18:14.2) and Aloysius Franzen (18:20.5) finishing third and fourth for the 6k race. Missouri’s Elijah Limo won the race in 18:05.2.

No. 3 Iowa State, running only a few freshmen and sophomores, finished third with 84 points. Freshman Jaden Merrick finished fifth in 18:23.

Ali Weimer guided the Gopher women to 27 points behind her individual win in 16:15.3 in the 5k race. The Gophers top five scorers all finished inside the top eight.

Missouri, second with 34 points, had individuals go 2-3-4 behind Weimer. Monica Wanjiku ran 16:22.5 to finish second.

Katy Zang, Nicholas Mazzeo Win Collegiate Debuts

Indiana freshman Katy Zang went above and beyond in her collegiate debut with a course record performance at the Sam Bell Invitational in Bloomington, Indiana.

Zang, who won two New Balance Nationals Indoor titles and broke the high school indoor two-mile record last indoor season, covered the 4k course in 12:36.16 Friday morning, finishing nearly a minute ahead of Bradley’s Noelle Steines (13:30.18) in second. Indiana also won the team race, 21-36, over Bradley.

Sam Bell Invitational RESULTS

Nicholas Mazzeo of Penn, who broke the high school record in the 2,000 steeplechase to win the New Balance Nationals Outdoor title, also won in his collegiate debut at the Friar Invitational hosted by Providence, running 18:01.2 in the 6k race.