Lexy Halladay-Lowry defended her U.S. 3,000-meter steeplechase title Saturday. She earned every inch of it: a season-best 9:12.54, nearly five seconds clear of runner-up Gabbi Jennings at Icahn Stadium in New York City.
Then Meghan Hunter added the result this file was missing. The former BYU All-American finished third in Sunday’s 800-meter final at 1:59.67, just 0.42 seconds behind champion Nia Akins and one hundredth ahead of Roisin Willis. NBC Sports’ results and the Deseret News independently report the same order and times.
The more useful BYU story is everything behind her.
Six athletes listed on BYU’s current track rosters reached a semifinal or final at the 2026 U.S. outdoor championships. James Corrigan took seventh in the men’s steeplechase. Sami Oblad made the women’s 400 final. Lexi Goff-Thompson and Karrie Baloga ran into BYU’s all-time steeplechase top 10. Carter Cutting made the 1,500 final, and Paje Rasmussen reached the 100 semifinals.
Add the former Cougars, and the meet becomes a clean picture of a program pipeline. BYU is developing athletes who can survive a national championship round, then keeping enough of them near the sport to make the alumni results feel connected to the current roster rather than filed away in a scrapbook. Hunter completed her NCAA eligibility in 2025. Her podium makes that connection immediate.
The steeplechase result has layers
Halladay-Lowry’s winning time of 9:12.54 beat Jennings’ 9:17.42. NBC Sports’ consolidated championship results list former Cougar Courtney Wayment fifth in 9:19.90. BYU’s official meet report adds Emma Gee in 10th, Goff-Thompson in 11th and Baloga in 15th.
That is five runners with BYU ties in one U.S. championship final.
Two of them are on the current women’s track roster. Goff-Thompson ran 9:48.16, which BYU lists at No. 8 in program history. Baloga ran 9:55.44, good for No. 10.
Those placements did not contend for the national title. They still matter. A program record list gets harder to enter when the standard keeps rising, and both current Cougars reached it in a race full of professionals and Olympians.
The men’s side supplied another late-round receipt. Corrigan ran a season-best 8:21.05 for seventh in the men’s steeplechase final. NBC’s results put him less than eight seconds behind winner Nathan Mountain’s 8:13.81. Corrigan already owns BYU’s school record in the event and competed at the 2024 Olympics. Saturday was not his breakthrough introduction. It was another national-level result from an athlete still attached to BYU’s current roster.
That distinction is the heart of the weekend. Alumni wins prove the ceiling. Current athletes making finals and changing school lists show whether the next group is still climbing toward it.
BYU did not bring only distance runners
The steeplechase naturally owns this story, but the sprint results keep it from becoming another distance-only victory lap.
Sami Oblad advanced through the 400-meter rounds with a 51.95 in Friday’s semifinal and finished ninth in Saturday’s final at 52.66. NBC’s full results confirm the final order and time.
Former Cougar Jaslyn Gardner placed fifth in the women’s 100 final at 11.03. Paje Rasmussen reached the semifinal round and finished 18th among the 24 semifinalists, according to BYU’s official report.
That gives BYU two different kinds of sprint evidence. Gardner showed where the program can lead after college. Oblad and Rasmussen showed that current roster development is reaching U.S. championship rounds now.
Carlee Hansen-Thompson added another bridge between those groups. BYU described the recent graduate’s opening-round 4:04.92 as a personal best and the No. 2 women’s 1,500 time in school history. She later finished 10th in the final at 4:12.64 in her first race representing Nike Swoosh Track Club.
On the men’s side, Carter Cutting reached the 1,500 final and placed 12th in 3:51.65. The final was tactical enough that all 12 runners finished within 1.38 seconds of winner Nathan Green. A slow championship final does not erase the qualification work required to get there.
The meet receipt, in one place
| Athlete | BYU connection | U.S. championship result |
|---|---|---|
| Lexy Halladay-Lowry | Alumna | 1st, 3,000m steeplechase, 9:12.54 |
| Meghan Hunter | Recent graduate | 3rd, 800m, 1:59.67 |
| Courtney Wayment | Alumna | 5th, 3,000m steeplechase, 9:19.90 |
| James Corrigan | Current roster | 7th, 3,000m steeplechase, 8:21.05 |
| Sami Oblad | Current roster | 9th, 400m, 52.66 |
| Emma Gee | Alumna | 10th, 3,000m steeplechase, 9:47.13 |
| Carlee Hansen-Thompson | Recent graduate | 10th, 1,500m, 4:12.64 |
| Lexi Goff-Thompson | Current roster | 11th, 3,000m steeplechase, 9:48.16 |
| Carter Cutting | Current roster | 12th, 1,500m, 3:51.65 |
| Karrie Baloga | Current roster | 15th, 3,000m steeplechase, 9:55.44 |
| Paje Rasmussen | Current roster | 18th in 100m semifinals |
| Jaslyn Gardner | Alumna | 5th, 100m, 11.03 |
| Kenneth Rooks | Alumnus | 20th in steeplechase first round, 8:46.26 |
The table needs one caveat. Championship rounds are different. A ninth-place final is not directly comparable with an 18th-place semifinal or a first-round result. This is a BYU participation and advancement map, not a points table.
It is still a deep map. Six current-roster athletes reached at least a semifinal, and four of those six made finals. Four women with BYU ties finished in the top five of their events: Halladay-Lowry, Hunter, Wayment and Gardner.
What the result says about the program
We wrote earlier that BYU track’s distance factory is an all-sports blueprint. This weekend added a better receipt than roster math alone.
The women’s steeplechase had a champion from BYU’s alumni pipeline and two current Cougars rewriting the school top 10 in the same race. Hunter made the 800 podium one year after her last BYU season. The men’s steeplechase put Corrigan in a U.S. final two years after his Olympic appearance. Sprint athletes made a 100 final, a 400 final and another 100 semifinal. Two current 1,500-meter runners reached national finals.
That does not mean every result was a triumph. Rooks missed the men’s steeplechase final. Oblad, Hansen-Thompson and Cutting finished at the back of their finals. Goff-Thompson and Baloga were well behind Halladay-Lowry. National championship racing is rude that way. It puts the whole ladder on the track at once.
BYU’s good news is that the ladder was crowded with Cougars.
For fans who mostly arrive through football, this is the translation: track has a working development chain. Athletes enter through the men’s and women’s programs, reach NCAA and U.S. championship rounds, then remain part of a professional training network that keeps feeding the program’s standard.
Halladay-Lowry supplied the title. Hunter supplied another podium. The current Cougars supplied evidence that the next chapter is already running.
Sources and further reading
- Official BYU women’s track report: Halladay-Lowry defends her title and current Cougars enter the program top 10
- Official BYU men’s track report: Corrigan takes seventh in the steeplechase final
- Official BYU women’s track report: Oblad, Gardner, Rasmussen and Hunter championship rounds
- Official BYU opening-day report: Hansen-Thompson’s personal best and final qualification
- NBC Sports: 2026 U.S. outdoor championships results
- Deseret News: Halladay-Lowry’s title and BYU-connected championship context
- Deseret News: Meghan Hunter takes third in the U.S. 800-meter final
- Official BYU profile: Meghan Hunter’s school records and All-America results
