After placing 23rd and 17th past two years, Young becomes BYU’s first champion in the 25-lap event since his coach Ed Eyestone in 1985, leading three Cougars placing in the top four for the first time

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

AUSTIN – Clayton Young didn’t make excuses. Not for his past results in the 10,000 meters or for Brigham Young’s recent disappointing performances in the 25-lap event at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships.

“Last year the BYU boys got rocked. We straight up got rocked. That was probably one of the worst days of my life,” said Young, reflecting on his own 23rd-place finish, as well as teammates Connor McMillan, Conner Mantz and Rory Linkletter struggling in the finals.

“Taking the last three spots (22nd, 23rd and 24th) and Connor McMillan kind of fading to 12th. That was a bad day for BYU.”

For all the frustrations experienced throughout his track career in the longest event and on the biggest stage, Young erased them all with a 55.8-second final lap that will be remembered for years to come at Mike A. Myers Stadium.

Young, who had never won a 10,000 in his previous 10 career collegiate races at the distance, saved his best effort for last Thursday, surging past Alabama senior Gilbert Kigen in the final 100 meters to win his first national title in 29:16.60.

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“My kick hasn’t always been well-known, I often get passed in the last 200. It’s happened time and time again,” said Young, who was able to celebrate the victory with his wife Ashley and 5-month-old daughter Lucy in attendance, along with his own father Kyle.

“I’ve been at nationals in six different events now, and I’ve led going into the last 400 two or three times and gotten eaten up every time. So practicing that over and over and over again to close it out this senior year, it feels incredible. It took me long enough to figure it out.”

With BYU assistant coach Isaac Wood shouting, “Do it for Ed” – referencing head coach and two-time NCAA 10,000 champion Ed Eyestone – and Eyestone himself being overcome with emotion watching the final 200 meters of the race unfold, Young not only held off Kigen (29:18.10), but led three Cougars in the top four, with McMillan placing third (29:19.85) and Mantz (29:19.93). Tyler Day of Northern Arizona (29:25.35) and UCLA’s Robert Brandt (29:26.34) joined Kigen in returning to the All-America first-team podium for a second straight year, placing sixth and seventh, respectively.

“I was really just ecstatic because the guys have worked really hard. I’m particularly happy for Clayton. He’s always been one of our team leaders and to have him finish his last 10K on the track for BYU winning a national championship, I couldn’t be more proud,” Eyestone said. “I think that’s one of the reasons why you saw tears streaming down my face as I watched him kick home in a 55 because sometimes you have to go through the tragedy before you can experience the jubilation of the triumph. I was super proud that he was able to find that gear.”

Young not only joined Eyestone, who captured 10,000 titles in 1984-85 with the latter as part of a 5,000-10,000 double during his senior year, as BYU’s only champions in the event, but praised his mentor for helping the Cougars rebound after last year’s humbling outcome.

“I think he took a lot of the blame last year for the reason we didn’t show up at NCAAs, so he changed quite a bit this year in terms of our workouts and our mentality,” Young said. “He worked with us a lot, so to say that we did this would be an understatement, it really was coach Eyestone and the BYU boys working hand in hand.”

Instead of backing off the miles and tapering the training as the postseason unfolded, Eyestone kept Young and his teammates logging high mileage, trusting they could recover. Young ran 85 miles the week prior in his final tuneup before traveling to Austin.

“It was all about giving us the right workouts, so that we could be prepared on this day,” Young said. “I’ve been known for performing very, very well at the beginning of the season, but I always seem to fade. You see that in cross country, you see that in track, I can’t hold that out throughout the whole season. But this year I knew if I kept my mileage high and really believed that I could recover, that I could make it the whole way.”

With two laps remaining, there were nine athletes separated by a second. Entering the final 400 meters, seven individuals were still in contention, less than a second apart.

And that’s when it became an all-out sprint, with Young and Kigen battling stride for stride along the backstretch, each athlete looking for the opening that would propel them to the finish.

“He really put on the pressure. I thought he was going to get me. I’ve seen so many races that I knew I needed to beat him to that 200-meter mark,” Young said. “I knew I had to do it. Even if it cost me spending a little bit more energy to hold him off on that turn, I mean that’s where I think the race was made. That’s what counted at the end.”

Kigen remained within striking distance around the final curve, before Young created the final separation that propelled him to BYU’s first men’s national title in any event since Kyle Perry captured the 3,000-meter steeplechase crown in 2009.

“I tried my best to pass him, but he wouldn’t let me, so I just gave up because I knew I could not pass him,” said Kigen, who covered the final lap in 57.2.

“I still have the 5K, so I will focus on trying my best to win that.”

Linkletter and Young regrouped after last year’s 10,000 to place eighth and 12th two days later in the 5,000 final. But there was still unfinished business for Young and his teammates when they took to the track Thursday night.

“We bounced back a little bit in the 5K, but we wanted more. So to bounce back this year and have three guys go 1-3-4, that’s unreal, that’s a dream,” Young said. “We’ve been talking about this since that day a year ago.”

By placing three athletes in the top four, BYU joined UTEP (1981) and Stanford (1998-2000) as the only programs to achieve the feat in the 10,000 in Division 1 history.

“The names tied to those teams are unreal. For it to hopefully go down in history is pretty incredible. It hasn’t hit me yet. It’s just barely starting to sink in,” Young said. “I knew that one of us from BYU was going to win it. I kept telling my teammates time and time again over the last two weeks that I’ve got a great feeling that one of us four is going to win it. We had six guys going in, but the big four – shout out to Rory Linkletter, Connor McMillan, Conner Mantz – I think any of us could have won it on this day. I just happened to pull the right straw today. But if we ran this race tomorrow, I bet one of them might win.”

But the fact that Young could deliver the victory, not only for the BYU program, but because of the history Eyestone has with the event, held greater significance for the senior, who had never finished higher than 17th in the 10,000 in two previous trips to nationals.

“He’s always said the 10K is the most exciting event on the track, kind of as a joke,” Young said. “But it’s his favorite event, and so doing it for him, especially my senior year, with this group of guys, the credit goes to him.”

It was Eyestone and Young who shared the last laugh Thursday.

“They never believe me,” Eyestone said. “But often it’s a 29-minute setup for a 55-second last 400. There’s plenty of excitement.”