BYU women's distance medley relay repeats as national champs

PROVO — The NCAA indoor track and field championships hit the halfway mark Friday night, but BYU already has a national championship from it.

Another one, even.

The Cougars' distance medley relay team of Jenna Hutchins, Sami Oblad, Tessa Buswell and Riley Chamberlain blitzed to the program's second-straight national championship with a national, meet and facility-record time of 10 minutes, 45.34 seconds to help BYU to fourth place after the first day in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Illinois is first with 21 points, followed by Oklahoma and Washington at 19, one point ahead of BYU.

It's the third national DMR title in five years, including back-to-back in 2024 and 2025.

Hutchins and Oblad kept BYU in the top-three positions after the 1,200-meter and 400-meter leg, respectively. Oblad clocked the fastest second-leg split of the 12-team field in 52.10 seconds before handing the baton to Buswell, a true freshman who ran the 800-meter leg in 2:06.52.

After passing the baton to Chamberlain in fourth, the junior from Loomis, California, closed down the final 1,600 meters in 4:25.17 before overtaking Oregon's Silan Ayyildiz down the stretch to clinch the Cougars' consecutive championships and first-team All-American honors for the group.

"I knew two in a row was going to be really hard to do, but I knew it was possible," said Chamberlain, who joined Oblad, Sadie Sargent and Carlee Hansen on last year's title-winning DMR team. "We had a good lineup and I was confident in the girls that were with me. I am just grateful to be here happy and healthy."

Lexy Halladay-Lowry added a second-place finish, pinning down the 5,000-meter run in 15:06.17 for first-team All-American honors to help pace the BYU women to third place after the first day.

Oblad, Meghan Hunter and Carmen Alder added top-15 finishes for second-team All-American status in the 400, 800 and mile runs, respectively.

In the men's championships, Casey Clinger took fourth in the 5,000-meter final with a personal-best time of 13:13.46, breaking his own school record to earn his third All-American first-team honor iof his indoor career.

"Casey ran an amazing race and I'm super proud of him," said coach Ed Eyestone, who has coached the American Fork product for seven years, in a school release. "It was a great close to his final campaign. Any other year his performance would've earned him an individual national title. He showed real grit today. It's an exclamation point on his indoor track and field career. I couldn't be any more proud."

Creed Thompson and Joey Nokes also finished in the top 15 in the event in 13:19.24 and 13:31.61, respectively, to earn All-American status.

The distance medley relay team of Carter Cutting, Josh Taylor, Tyler Mathews and Lucas Bons clocked a school-record time of 9:18.31 to finish fifth overall and help the Cougars to a seven-way tie for third with 10 points.

Oklahoma State leads the men's standings with 17 points, 2 points ahead of Virginia.

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