Complete Men's Results
Complete Women's Results

GREENVILLE, S.C.-- The Colorado men and Brigham Young women emerged victorious today at the 2001 NCAA National Cross Country Championships held on the campus of Furman University in Greenville, S.C.

Colorado, led by three top 20 finishes, edged the Stanford Cardinal by one point to claim the men's title. Rounding out the top five behind Colorado's 90 points and Stanford's 91 points were Arkansas (118), Northern Arizona (193), and Wisconsin (245).

"We've been right there year in and year out and we've never gotten over that hill," said Colorado junior and individual second place finisher Jorge Torres. "Today was our day and we got over the hill finally."

In the individual men's competition, Eastern Michigan's Boaz Cheboiywo, the champion of the 2001 Great Lakes Regional, won by an impressive 19 seconds to claim the national championship.

Cheboiywo, who had been unable to train for the last two weeks because of a hip injury, was not completely assured of himself coming into today's race.

"I was not very confident because my hip and Achilles tendon were bothering me," said the Eastern Michigan Eagle. "I was just going to run the best race that I could today and if someone else were to win then I would just congratulate him as a great sportsman."

Cheboiywo, who won the 10K race with a 28:47 time, also broke UCLA Bruin Mebrahtom Keflezighi's previous 10K course record by seven seconds.

Cheboiywo's closest competitors were Colorado's Torres (29:06), Arkansas' Alistair Cragg (29:10), Colorado's Dathan Ritzenhein (29:11), and Notre Dame's Luke Watson (29:19), respectively.

In the women's competition, the Brigham Young Cougars dominated the field, winning by 86 points over second place North Carolina State. BYU, ranked second behind Stanford coming into today's race, had five runners place in the top 25.

"This was a great team race," said BYU head coach Patrick Shane. "This is what cross country is all about. Everyone ran well today. There are a lot of great teams out there and a lot of deserving teams and we feel honored to have won here today."

In the individual competition, Arizona's Tara Chaplin broke Washington Husky Sabrina Monro and North Carolina Tar Heel Shalane Flanagan's 6K course record by two seconds in winning the national women's title. Chaplin's 20:24 time was seven seconds better than Georgia Tech's second place finisher Renee Metivier.

"It feels great," exclaimed Chaplin. "I have been running in this championship since my freshman year. That was the hardest I have ever fought at the end of the race."

Rounding out the top five were Stanford's Lauren Fleshman (20:35), N.C. State's Kristin Price (20:36), and BYU's Michaela Manova (20:42).