QUICK RECAP: Panorama Farms Invitational

Courtesy: Tyler Mayforth & Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA

September 23, 2016

NEW ORLEANS — What a day it was in Earlysville, Virginia as the 2016 Panorama Farms Invitational went off without a hitch.
BYU swept the team titles, while Syracuse’s Justyn Knight and William & Mary’s Regan Rome romped to the individual crowns.
Here are our quick thoughts on today’s meet. Be sure to join us tomorrow as we LIVE BLOG the Roy Griak Invitational.

#12 BYU Upsets Defending National Champ #1 Syracuse in Men’s Race

Syracuse or Stanford? Stanford or Syracuse? In what was billed as a showdown of the No. 1 and No. 4 teams in the country at the Virginia Panorama Farms Invitational, of course it was No. 12 BYU that came away with the win.

Team Standings

#12 BYU – 39

#1 Syracuse – 44

#11 Virginia – 82

UR Campbell – 125

#4 Stanford – 139

RESULTS
Trailing the national champion Syracuse men through 5K of the 8K race, 33-35, the Cougars stormed back over the final three kilometers to topple the Orange, 39-44, for the 2016 season’s first big upset.
The news was not all bad for Syracuse, however, as Justyn Knight staged an incredible final 3K to win by 16 seconds over reigning National Athlete of the Week Lawrence Kipkoech of Campbell, crossing the line in 23:13.8.
No. 11 Virginia finished third with 82 points, followed by unranked Campbell with 125 and a very short-handed No. 4 Stanford squad in fifth with 139 points. The Cardinal ran without Sean McGorty and Grant Fisher.
Both BYU and Syracuse ran a majority of their top runners, however, and it was the Cougars that came out on top.
Nicolas Montanez and Clayton Young were fourth and fifth for BYU, and the eighth- and ninth-place duo of Jonathan Harper and Rory Linkletter gave the Cougars four finishers in the top 10.
Even more encouraging for BYU was the fact that they ran without last year’s 74th-place NCAA finisher Dallin Farnsworth.
Syracuse, meanwhile, at least started the race with its entire projected line-up – though they wouldn’t finish that way. Knight got the win with his 8:19 split over the final 3K, while Colin Bennie – who crossed 5K side-by-side with Knight in 14:54 – struggled to a sixth-place showing in 23:57. Philo Germano was seventh, Iliass Aouani was 12th ( after coming through 5K in fourth) and Kevin James was 18th to round out the lineup.
Missing from Cuse’s final results was last year’s No. 5 man Joel Hubbard, who was third for the Orange at Penn State earlier this year and finished 47th at NCAAs a year ago. He came through 2K today in 13th place, but appeared to drop out after not appearing in the 5K split list or final results.
While Knight’s finish certainly bodes well for the Orange near the front of the pack, perhaps more questions were raised about Syracuse on Friday than were answered.
Virginia was a distant third as Brent Demarest was 11th, Zach Herriott was 14th and Mike Marsella was 15th. Herriott went through 2k in second-place, dropped to 27th by 5K and ultimately worked his way back up to 14th by race’s end.
Fourth-place Campbell went 2-3 behind Kipkoech and Amon Terer.
Stanford did not run Fisher or McGorty, but did run potential scorers Garrett Sweatt (10th), Sam Wharton (17th), and Jack Keelan (30th). Will Lauer (23rd) and Patrick Perrier (70th) accounted for all five runners today.

#19 BYU Women, Rome Emerge Victorious in Women’s Race

Regan Rome cemented her status as a national contender Friday.

Team Standings

#19 BYU – 47

UR SMU – 89

#16 Syracuse – 98

#14 Virginia – 127

RV William & Mary – 155

BYU, the 19th-ranked team in the nation, made a great case to move up in the poll.
On a beautiful day at the Panorama Farms Invitational, William & Mary’s Rome pulled away late to get the win over Coastal Carolina’s Annie Bothma. Rome crossed the finish line in 17:01.1, three seconds ahead of Bothma (17:04.5).
What can we say about those Cougars, though?
BYU packed up well at the beginning — led by 20 points over SMU at 2K — and only got stronger from there on its way to the team victory. The Cougars put their entire scoring lineup inside the top-15 and were led by Yesenia Silva (17:17.1) and Erica Birk (17:17.1), who were fourth and fifth, respectively.
When the dust settled, BYU scored 44 points compared to 85 for unranked SMU, led by Hannah Miller in third overall (17:10.3). Third place in the team standings went to 16th-ranked Syracuse (Madeleine Davison was the team’s top finisher in 8th) and 14th-ranked Virginia took fourth on its home course (Emily Mulhern finished 15th overall).
Behind Rome and Bothma was Miller, Birk and Silva, Clemson’s Grace Barnett, Davison, the SMU duo of Charlotte Tara Murphy and Holly Archer and finally BYU’s Olivia Hoj to round out the top-10.