It’s difficult to remember when or if BYU has ever headed into the hyper-competitive NCAA track and field championships with three athletes who rank among the top three in their specialties. That bodes well for BYU’s team-race ambitions.

“Our men could be top-15 and women could be top-four if the big guns show up,” says Ed Eyestone, BYU’s director of track and field.

The big guns are Meghan Hunter, Lexy Lowry and James Corrigan, who have had brilliant, even sensational, seasons to date. If Casey Clinger had not turned pro in the middle of the season, BYU would have four top-three favorites.

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The NCAA championships will be held June 11-14 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. The men compete Wednesday and Friday, the women Thursday and Saturday. BYU qualified 19 athletes for the meet, counting members of a relay.

Hunter, a senior from Provo, recently became the third-fastest 800-meter runner in NCAA history, running 1:58.99 to win the Big 12 championship and then 1:58.95 to win the NCAA prelims.

Lowry, a senior from Idaho, is the fifth-fastest collegian of all time in both the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 5,000-meter run.

Corrigan, who represented the U.S. in last summer’s Paris Olympic Games, has the third-fastest time in the nation, 8:22.20, which makes him the seventh-fastest American collegian ever.

The BYU trio will face formidable competition in Eugene, to say the least — most of them Kenyans who are running for U.S. schools.

“James is running very well right now, but the Kenyans on the men’s side are stronger and deeper than ever,” says Eyestone. “It might be more difficult to get top three at the NCAAs than at (the U.S. national championships).”

Five of the men’s top seven collegiate steeplechasers this season are Kenyans — Louisville’s Geoffrey Kirwa, New Mexico’s Mathew Kosgei, Kentucky’s Collins Kipngok, Iowa State’s Joash Ruto and Akron’s Bismack Kipchirchir. Kirwa is the second-fastest collegian ever, at 8:13.89.

Corrigan posted a time of 8:13.87 last summer in an 11th-hour effort to meet the Olympic qualifying standard — a time that would easily be the American collegiate record except it occurred after the collegiate season had ended and therefore isn’t recognized by the NCAA. He has not lost a steeplechase race this spring. On the other hand, he hasn’t met a field as formidable as the one he’ll see in Eugene.

Lowry, who will not contest the 5,000 because there’s not enough rest after the steeplechase, will compete against, among others, Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, a 23-year-old Kenyan and the defending NCAA champion in both cross-country and the steeplechase.

Lemngole set the NCAA record in the steeplechase earlier this season with a time of 9:10.13. BYU’s Courtney Wayment holds the American collegiate record of 9:16.00, but Lowry is closing in, running 9:18.05 earlier this season. Lowry, one of the most improved athletes in the country, will have to top that mark to win in Eugene.

Hunter is one of the most talented track athletes ever to come out of the Utah high school ranks. She was largely a sprinter at Provo High who dabbled in the 800. As a senior she pulled off a rare quadruple performance at state, winning the 100, 200, 400 and 800. She set an all-classification state record in the 400-meter dash of 52.59 in 2018 that no one has come close to breaking, even with the arrival of the new high-tech shoes.

What happened next has been widely covered. She was in a serious car accident the summer before she entered BYU, breaking her neck. She underwent surgery to fuse several vertebrae and her recovery was long and difficult, both physically but especially emotionally. She suffered from PTSD and, more specifically, panic attacks, from the violence of the rollover car wreck.

After a so-so start to the 2025 season, she has performed sensationally the last six weeks. Only Olympic champion Athing Mu (1:57.73), the former Texas A&M star and Olympic champion, and LSU’s Michaela Rose (1:58.12), the 2023 NCAA champion, have run faster. Hunter will face Rose in Eugene in what will be one of the meet’s most anticipated races. Three other women have also run under two minutes this season.

Individual national championships are difficult to come by, of course. BYU men have won only two championships since 2009, both of them in the last six years — Clayton Young in the 10,000 in 2019 and Kenneth Rooks in the steeplechase in 2023. BYU women have won three individual events since 2012, all in the last three years — Wayment in the steeplechase and Ashton Riner in the javelin in 2022, and Anna Bennett in the 1,500-meter run in 2021.

BYU is one of the premier distance running schools in the country. The Cougars won both the men’s and women’s NCAA cross-country championships last fall, only the fifth time a school has pulled off that double.

BYU’s team hopes in the men’s NCAA track championships took a big hit in mid-April when Clinger signed a pro contract with Brooks, ending his collegiate eligibility (the NCAA allows NIL contracts, but it does not allow pro contracts because of the amount of the money and the inclusion of performance incentives).

Two weeks before he signed the contract, Clinger broke a 40-year-old school record in the 10,000-meter run. His time of 27:11.00 finally took down the mark held by none other than his own coach. Eyestone, a four-time NCAA champion and two-time Olympian, set the long-enduring record of 27:41.05 in 1985.

If Clinger had not turned pro, he would be the fastest collegian in the country by 25 seconds.

The BYU women’s team is set up to make a strong team showing in Eugene. Aside from the Big Three, BYU also has strong entries in the revived Carlee Hansen and Riley Chamberlain, who will compete in the 1,500-meter run.

Hansen, a junior from Woods Cross, transferred to BYU from North Carolina in 2023. In the two seasons since then, she has cut a whopping eight and a half seconds off her 1,500-meter time and qualified for nationals.

Her best time at North Carolina was 4:16.02. Like Hunter, Hansen saw little improvement until six weeks ago, when she ran 4:12.42 for a 13th-place finish. She made another dramatic improvement at the Big 12 championships two weeks later, when she posted a time of 4:08.70 to place second.

At the NCAA prelims two weeks ago, she placed fifth with a time of 4:07.64, breaking the school record of 4:08.53 set by Anna Bennett en route to winning the 2021 NCAA championships. In that same race, Chamberlain, a versatile junior from California, also broke Bennett’s record and qualified for nationals, finishing seventh with a time of 4:08.42.

“Meghan and Lexy could win, and Riley and Carlee could combine for some good points in the 1,500,” said Eyestone.

Teammates Jenna Hutchins (5,000 meters), Taylor Lovell (steeplechase) and Sami Oblad (400 meters) are also solid bets to score.

Aside from the distance races, BYU’s strongest event on the men’s side is the decathlon. Jaden Roskelley scored 8,000 points four weeks ago during a meet in Provo — ranked No. 4 in the nation — but it was teammate Ben Barton, a 6-foot-5 junior from Michigan with 10.48 100-meter speed, who won the Big 12 championship.

The BYU women have cracked the top 10 only twice in the team race during the last 19 years — ninth in 2022 and 10th in 2021. The BYU men have placed in the top 10 four times in the last seven years, including seventh last season.

Utah collegians competing in NCAA championships

In-state qualifiers for this week’s NCAA track and field championships, with national ranking noted.

BYU

• Sami Oblad, 400 meters (10)
• Meghan Hunter, 800 meters (2)
• Tessa Buswell, 800 meters (19)
• Carlee Hansen, 1,500 meters (10)
• Riley Chamberlain, 1,500 meters (15)
• Taylor Lovell, steeplechase (7)
• Lexy Lowry, steeplechase (2)
• Jenna Hutchins, 5,000 meters (15)
• Gretchen Hoekstre, shot put, discus (19/18)
• James Corrigan, steeplechase (3)
• Luke Grundvig, 5,000 meters (10)
• Creed Thompson, 10,000 meters (11)
• Joey Nokes, 10,000 meters (10)
• Eli Hazlett-Josh Taylor-Jonah Heimuli-Trey Jackson, 4×400 relay (8)
• Jaden Roskelley, decathlon (4)
• Ben Barton, decathlon (9)

Utah

• McKaylie Caesar, 10,000 (19)
• Morgan Jensen, 10,000 (20)
• Megan Rose-Emily Martin-Bailey Kealamakia-Chelsea Amoah, 4×100 relay (22)

Utah State

• Shelby Jensen, steeplechase (20)
• Logan Hammer, pole vault (7)

Utah Valley

• Kelsi Oldroyd, javelin (8)
• Gavin Stafford-Cameron Franklin-Kade Thompson-Gabe Remy, 4×100 relay (20)

Weber State

• Peter Visser, steeplechase (9)

Southern Utah

• Ajia Hughes, high jump (18)