How butterfly necklaces propelled the BYU women’s cross country team to a No. 1 finish

MADISON — A year ago, Lexy Halladay-Lowry experienced the lowest moment of her running career.

Her BYU women’s cross country team fell apart at the NCAA Championships, taking 14th after entering the race ranked third in the nation.

“We failed last year. We failed miserably,” she said Saturday.

It was an imperfect end to what felt like a near-perfect season, and it was “complete disappointment.”

Halladay-Lowry and her teammates entered the fall cross country season knowing they needed a different approach. With the guidance of their coach, Diljeet Taylor, they embraced imperfection all fall and found joy in growth, not just results.

“We call them butterfly moments — we embrace the journey and know the outcome will be worth it. Even if it’s not perfect, the outcome will show the progress,” Halladay-Lowry said, showing off the butterfly necklace she and all of her teammates wore in this year’s championship race.

Taylor gave his team the necklaces a few weeks ago and wore one of his own on Saturday. She told reporters that the image of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly helped her women overcome last year’s heartbreak.

“At the end of that experience, I remember coming back to my team and saying, ‘Just when the caterpillar thinks the world is ending, she becomes a butterfly,'” Taylor said. “Since that moment … BYU women’s distance has had a ton of butterfly moments.”

The biggest butterfly moment yet came Saturday when the BYU women — and the BYU men, too — finished first in the 2024 NCAA cross country national championships.

Halladay-Lowry was the top finisher among the BYU women, finishing 14th.

“It was an imperfect season,” she told reporters after BYU’s victory. But on Saturday, the team had “the perfect run.”

Taylor said BYU’s transformation from the 14th-ranked team a year ago to the No. 1 team on Saturday proves what she has been saying about caterpillars and butterflies.

“You have to stay committed because when things are really dark, the light is just on the other side,” she said.